San Francisco, Calif., Jun 23, 2018 / 04:40 pm (CNA).- Becoming a surrogate mother seemed like a natural option for Kelly Martinez, who enjoyed helping people and liked being pregnant.
Just 20 years old, she thought working with big surrogacy agencies was a safe way for her to help couples have a family.
Instead, however, she says she was instructed to lie to the French consulate about being the biological mother of the children she was carrying. She was told to sign legal papers in French, which she did not understand. She did not receive a copy of the documents, and no translator was offered to her.
Ultimately, Martinez says she was manipulated, lied to, locked in a legal battle, and left with a stack of medical bills. She now sees the surrogacy industry differently – as an industry centered on profit.
Martinez’s story is being turned into a feature-length documentary called #BigFertility, a film produced by the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network, which aims to show the dangers behind the big money involved in the surrogacy industry.
“Kelly’s story is particularly unique because of the international dimension and how the industry exploited her over and over again,” said Jennifer Lahl, president of the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network.
“Her story shows how she was lied to, lied about, financially ruined and almost lost her life,” Lahl told CNA.
Martinez became a three-time surrogate mother. She became a surrogate for a French couple and a Spanish couple, despite the practice being illegal in all forms in the couples’ home countries. She also became a surrogate mother for a couple in the U.S. Throughout the documentary, Martinez talks about the medical risks, exploitation, and abuse she says she faced during the surrogacy process.
“I have now had my eyes opened to the fact that this is really about money, not about the children,” Martinez says in the trailer for #BigFertility.
The international scope of Martinez’s experiences, Lahl said, points to the overarching concerns that surrogacy around the globe presents. Martinez has now become an advocate against “big surrogacy,” and has spoken at various events around the world about her experience, including to members of Spanish Parliament and the United Nations.
Surrogacy has long been a controversial topic because of its connection with exploitation, abuses, and ethical concerns. The #BigFertility documentary is hoping to bring more of these concerns to light through Kelly’s story and experiences.
“Pushing back on the false narrative that surrogacy can be regulated and prevent problems, #BigFertility will show that the industry cares most about profits and least about the women used as paid breeders,” Lahl said.
The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network is also running a kickstarter page to finalize and market the documentary, which will be launched this fall.
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This is a matter of priorities. I would like to know how bad it is to be defined “gravely immoral”? Catholics have a penchant for labeling those who seek to defy their dogma. The damning of a poor soul is not so prevalent in other Christian faiths. They walk a tight rope to heaven while Catholics use a piano wire, (much more difficult). We seem to be struggling with a barren woman and wishes to assign a surrogate to the duty of bearing the embryo. I ask, what priority does this have in the broader scheme of life? Is there priority of casting dispersions on the mother and surrogate over caring for the Trump abandoned babies on the Mexican border? How can we have a higher priority than aiding the people being raped and murdered in Syria, Yemen, Rwanda and Myanmar? Who would not place a high priority on nuclear annihilation? Even Pope Francis is on the side of the world’s Eco scientists. I am not a tree hugger. I am a forest hugger. Perhaps the highest priority order is getting the global warming souls to accept that human activity is the greatest contributor to climate change. My fourth degree knight brother-in-law thinks in old Catholic terms when he rejects controlling the expanding population. He was quick to support the church’s pedophile disgrace by saying “it was only a small number of priests”. If SM is the highest priority, I may be missing the point. I will try to save my soul if one cannot be “gravely” damned for speaking out. However, I must exercise caution… I have neuropathy in my feet and I would have a problem walking a piano wire.
No, morgan, it is not a “matter of priorities.” It is clearly evil – or clearly to anybody who isn’t blinded by hatred of any sort of discipline or dogma that disagrees with something that person wants to do.
“Catholics have a penchant for labeling those who seek to defy their dogma.”
Well, well, well: you’re finally admitting that you aren’t Catholic, having pretended that you were as you did your concern troll postings.
“The damning of a poor soul is not so prevalent in other Christian faiths.”
People can damn only their own souls, by sinning.
“They walk a tight rope to heaven while Catholics use a piano wire, (much more difficult).”
No; Catholics have a clear path, and there are strong fences protecting them from falling off the nearby cliffs.
“We seem to be struggling with a barren woman and wishes to assign a surrogate to the duty of bearing the embryo.”
So? Nobody has an absolute right to give birth to a child. And that’s the issue not “I want a child,” because there are many children who need parents; but that’s just not good enough for someone who demands *MY OWN BABY!*
Dragging in all those issues is ridiculous. “Well, it’s not nuclear annihilation, so I can go out and fornicate and steal and murder because that’s not nearly so bad.”
“Is there priority of casting dispersions on the mother and surrogate over caring for the Trump abandoned babies on the Mexican border?”
Presumably you mean aspersions. And the two are completely unrelated. In any case, those parents who put their children into extremely dangerous situations by using illegal methods to enter the United States don’t seem like the ideal people to have custody of a child.
“Perhaps the highest priority order is getting the global warming souls to accept that human activity is the greatest contributor to climate change.”
Pope Francis isn’t a scientist, and neither are you. https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2018/10/Lindzen-2018-GWPF-Lecture.pdf
“My fourth degree knight brother-in-law thinks in old Catholic terms when he rejects controlling the expanding population.”
In other words, your brother-in-law is a faithful Catholic and a decent man.
“He was quick to support the church’s pedophile disgrace by saying ‘it was only a small number of priests’
The number of pedophile scandals in the Church is very, very, very small. The number of predatory homosexual ephebophile priests, on the other hand, appears to be much larger.
“I will try to save my soul if one cannot be “gravely” damned for speaking out.”
What are you babbling about?
“However, I must exercise caution… I have neuropathy in my feet and I would have a problem walking a piano wire.”
Your problem is not with your feet, it’s with your mind and your will. You hate the Church’s teachings because like a small child you’re screaming, “Mommy, you never let me do *anything* I want to do! It’s not fairrrrrrrrrr!”