A Surrogate’s Story

By Claudia Wallis

Valeria is a New Jersey mother of two boys, age two and three, whom she describes as “little monsters full of mischief.” Her husband works as a truck driver, and money is tight. The family of four is living with her mother while they save for an apartment of their own. One day last March, Valerie, 23, who prefers to remain anonymous, saw the following advertisement in a local New Jersey paper: Surrogate mother wanted. Couple unable to have child willing to pay $10,000 fee and expenses to woman to carry husband’s child. Conception by artificial insemination. All replies strictly confidential.

The advertisement made Valerie stop and think. “I had very easy pregnancies,” she says, “and I didn’t think it would be a problem for me to carry another child. I figured maybe I could help someone.” And then there was the lure of the $10,000 fee. “The money could help pay for my children’s education,” she says, “or just generally to make their lives better.”

The next day Valerie went for an interview at the Infertility Center of New York, a profit-making agency owned by Michigan Attorney Noel Keane, a pioneer in the controversial business of matching surrogate mothers with infertile parents. She was asked to fill out a five-page application, detailing her medical history and reasons for applying. Most applicants are “genuine, sincere, family-oriented women,” says agency Administrator Donna Spiselman. The motives they list range from “I enjoy being pregnant” and an urge to “share maternal joy” to a need to alleviate guilt about a past abortion by bearing someone else’s child. Valerie’s application and her color photograph were added to 300 others kept in scrapbooks for prospective parents to peruse. Valerie was amazed when only a week later her application was selected, and she was asked to return to the agency to meet the couple.

Valerie passed without a hitch. A vivacious woman who is an avid reader, she more than met the couple’s demands for a surrogate who was “reasonably pretty,” did not smoke or drink heavily and had no family history of genetic disease.

At first, Valerie’s husband had some reservations about the arrangements, but, she says, he ultimately supported it “100%.” Valerie is not concerned about what her neighbors might think because the family is planning to move after the birth. Nor does she believe that her children will be troubled by the arrangement because, she says, they are too young to understand. And although her parents are being deprived of another grandchild, they have raised no objections.

Relationships between surrogate mothers and their employers vary widely. At the National Center for Surrogate Parenting the two parties never meet. At the opposite extreme is the case of Marilyn Johnston, 31, of Detroit. Johnston and the couple who hired her became so close during her pregnancy that they named their daughter after her. She continues to make occasional visits to see the child she bore and says, “I feel like a loving aunt to her.”

Not all surrogate arrangements work so well. Some women have refused to give up the child they carried for nine months. Valerie, whose pregnancy is just beginning to show, says she is “conditioning” herself not to become too attached to the baby. “It is not my husband’s child,” she says, “so I don’t have the feeling behind it as if it were ours.” She does not plan to see the infant after it is born, but, she admits, “I might like to see a picture once in a while.” (Abridged)

From Times Warner Inc.

Language and Culture Focus.

• surrogate mother – a woman who gives birth to a baby for another woman who is unable to have babies herself

• New Jersey, Michigan – the states in the USA

• Attorney – a senior legal officer in some countries or states

• scrapbook – a book with empty pages where you can stick pictures, newspaper articles, etc.

Think of the best way to translate it.

1. The next day Valerie went for an interview… at an agency, a pioneer in the controversial business of matching surrogate mothers with infertile parents.

2. Valerie passed without a hitch… She more than met the couple’s demands for a surrogate who was “reasonably pretty”… and had no family history of genetic disease.

3. Not all surrogate arrangements work so well. Some women have refused to give up the child they carried for nine months.

Comprehension questions and tasks.

1. Did Valerie have financial or rather moral reasons for becoming a surrogate mother?

2. Can any woman become a surrogate mother?

3. Why do not all surrogate arrangements work well?

4. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a surrogate arrangement.