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Supporters of surrogacy often claim that on the whole, women in developing countries benefit from the system, as they earn years of wages from a single pregnancy. However, a paediatrician at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine, in Minnesota, has published a blistering rebuttal in the International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics. Jonathan W. Knoche writes:
On a psychological and philosophical level, the acceptance of international surrogacy requires an alteration of the view of a woman and the process of reproduction. The international market of industrialized reproduction necessitates the uterus to be viewed as a mere commodity—something distinct from the whole woman. Within this market-oriented mentality, the commodity of a womb is fungible (i.e. any one of them can be substituted for any other similar commodity, given that the quality and price are the same). Thus, a gestational surrogate is essentially seen as a glorified incubator. Carriers become commodities. To view human persons as parts or commodities primarily for our use and exploitation is dubious. No human being—or her parts—should be treated as a commodity precisely because we are...