tim's experiment

The whole town is talking, as journalists say in their usual exaggerated way, about the goings-on in the Lee clan. The story was that the elder Lee (otherwise known as Henderson Land) was keen to have grandsons to inherit the family firm. His second son had married and done his best, but produced only daughters. Eldest son is not married, but did his duty by getting a surrogate mother in the US to give birth to triplets on his behalf. The three babies have now arrived in Hong Kong.  The Standard reported this entirely as a feel-good happy story, which seemed a bit odd to me, but I must in fairness report that it was a better effort than that of the Post, which missed the item completely.  It did not seem to occur to anyone, at this stage, that some people might find the whole idea a bit controversial.

In the Standard’s follow-up story the next day some misgivings had appeared. One radio caller apparently thought the whole deal was morally wrong and unfair to the kids. A millionaire was quoted as saying that “it’s more reasonable to have children after marriage”, which could be considered a bit of an understatement. Another caller said that “they are not harming anyone and everyone has gotten what they needed,” which seemed to be rather missing the point.

Which is, I think, that using medical technology to help people with medical problems is one thing. Using it to allow very rich people to, in effect, buy babies, is another. This is not a question of the acceptability of surrogacy. In fact, strictly speaking, the woman who bore the babies is not a surrogate. A surrogate is, according to the Oxford Dictionary, “a substitute, especially a person deputizing for another in a specific role or office”.  In this case there is no wife for whom the surrogate is a substitute so she is not a surrogate. She is, I suppose, a sort of rented incubator. We were not told where the eggs came from – from the incubator or someone else – but it seems that the “father” was able to stipulate the sex and that a multiple birth was not unexpected, so I suppose the actual meeting of sperm and egg was done in a laboratory dish. The father’s part of the proceedings was limited to 20 minutes with a test tube and a copy of Playboy, and paying a very large bill.  

The new father of three now says he is studying fatherhood and intends to be a hands-on Dad, changing diapers like any other single parent. On the other hand I suppose being a vice chairman of Henderson Land takes up quite a lot of his time and he has left an awful lot of the proceedings so far to the hired help, so there may be some doubts about this. He also says he hopes to get married eventually, though I would have thought that finding a Miss Right who is romantically inclined to a pre-existing family of four may be a bit challenging, even for a millionaire.

I believe there is some reason to worry about the babies. Firstly, being a twin (as I am) has some serious disadvantages. I suppose being a triplet is even worse. The appearance of Mum, when Dad gets round to it, is going to raise some tricky questions. Are further offspring on the cards, and if so will they be treated differently? Or are they not on the cards, and will the future Mrs Lee have to live with the fact that some nameless American lady had done her job for her before she even reached the altar?

Clearly the Lee clans’ activities are legal. Whether they are moral is not a question on which I feel qualified to have an opinion. I just think the whole thing is in very poor taste. If you  are rich enough you can buy almost anything. “Can”, not “should”.