The Complicated History of Surrogacy From 'Baby M' to Kim Kardashian and Kanye West
By Olivia B. Waxman, Time | 01. 16. 2018
Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West have announced that their third child, a daughter, was born on Monday via surrogate. “We are incredibly grateful to our surrogate who made our dreams come true with the greatest gift one could give,” Kardashian West said in a blog post sharing the news.
They are the latest celebrity couple to raise awareness about this method of having a child, in which a third party carries the pregnancy on behalf of the parents. It’s an idea with extremely old origins — as TIME has noted previously, the Old Testament story of Abraham and Hagar conceiving a child with his wife Sarah’s blessing is essentially a story of surrogacy — but it has only become more widely known and debated in the United States in the last three decades, thanks in large part to a controversial and headline-grabbing case that got the nation talking about the subject.
Here’s what happened: In 1985, a biochemist named Bill Stern and his pediatrician wife Elizabeth Stern, faced with the fact that Elizabeth’s multiple sclerosis would prevent her from...
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Following a Biopolitical Times tradition, we present some of our favorite blog posts of the past year, in chronological order. As ever, a wide range of people contributed; most wrote more than one post – apologies to anyone whose favorite of their own work was not selected. There are certainly many more worth your time, which can be found at the Biopolitical Times archive; scroll down and “VIEW MORE” as needed.
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By Ayesha Chatterjee, Pop A.R.T. Guest Columnist | 11.16.2018
In her new memoir, Becoming, Michelle Obama makes a brave choice: she reveals her experience of a miscarriage and subsequent cycles of in vitro fertilization (IVF) that result in two healthy pregnancies. The relevant passage is reportedly brief. Based on the media’s coverage of the book, however, one might easily think the whole thing – cover to cover – is an ode to Obama’s medically assisted fertility.
To be clear, the former First Lady’s honest telling of a painful...
As part of the American Experience series, PBS has produced a documentary and website about the 20th-century eugenics movement in the United States. The Eugenics Crusade was broadcast on October 16, and remains available on the web, along with eight features of varying types. The result is a valuable, if flawed, resource.
Far too few people know much about the history of eugenics, and this project will help to rectify that if it attracts the audience it deserves. The film...
