MSNBC: New industry to set up "cheap" surrogacy services

[Skidmore]

for couples in USA and Canada to hire women in third world nations to have babies for them and avoid the cost and legal problems of surrogacy here. Planethospital.com. Contessa Brewer is calling this idiot on the idea that he may be exploiting poor women. Rudy Rupak sees himself has a savior of some sort for impoverished women in these nations. This is disgusting.

[KamaAina]

1. Outsourcing pregnancy?!

Move over, Michael Steele. I think we've found our new RNC chair. All Hail Rudy Rupak! :sarcasm:

[Joanne98]

2. The Handmaiden's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale is set in the near future in the Republic of Gilead, a country formed within the borders of what was formerly the United States of America. It was founded by a racist, male chauvinist, nativist, theocratic-organized military coup as an ideologically-driven response to the pervasive ecological, physical and social degradation of the country. Beginning with a staged terrorist attack (blamed on Islamic extremist terrorists) that kills the President, a movement calling itself the "Sons of Jacob" launched a revolution, ousted Congress, and suspended the U.S. Constitution under the pretext of restoring order. Taking advantage of electronic banking, they were quickly able to freeze the assets of all women and other "undesirables" in the country, stripping their rights away. The new theocratic military dictatorship, styled "The Republic of Gilead", moved quickly to consolidate its power and reorganize society along a new militarized, hierarchical, compulsorily-Christian regime of Old Testament-inspired social and religious orthodoxy among its newly-created social classes.

The story is presented from the point of view of a woman called Offred (a patronymic name that means "Of Fred", referring to the man she serves). The character is one of a class of individuals kept as concubines ("handmaids") for reproductive purposes by the ruling class. The book follows Offred's life from the beginnings of the revolution, when she finds she has lost all autonomy to her husband, through her indoctrination into the life of a handmaid, to her new assignment as handmaid to Fred, (referred to as "The Commander"). Through her eyes, the structure of Gilead's society is described, including the several different categories of women and their circumscribed lives in the new theocracy. The Commander, a high ranking official in Gilead, exposes Offred to many hidden or contraband aspects of the new society. He takes her to a secret house of prostitution run by the government, and he frequently and secretly meets with her in his study, where he allows her the contraband activity of reading. The Commander's wife strikes a deal with Offred—she arranges for Offred to have sex with her driver in an effort to get her pregnant, as she believes The Commander is sterile, and in exchange she gives Offred news of her daughter, who Offred has not seen since she and her family were captured trying to escape Gilead. Through another handmaid, Ofglen, Offred learns of the Mayday resistance. As the novel concludes, Offred is being taken away by men in a large black van.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmaid's_Tale

[malaise]

3. This makes the wet nursing

side of slavery look tame. Soon the rich won't bother having their own children.
Disgusting doesn't quite describe this.

[prolesunited]

4. I saw an ad on Craigslist offering $25,000

for surrogacy. I didn't know womb rental was even legal.

[guruoo]

5. In many parts of the world that would exceed an entire life's earnings nt