This article was so horrifying. There have now been 3 articles in the course of 1 year about millionaires abusing surrogates and the surrogacy system in the US. In addition to this article, there was the infamous Wired one about Cindy Bi, and the Business Insider one about Greg Lindberg. And also the couple in the NYT were not millionaires, but were continuing to have babies well into their 60s through surrogacy--the wife, Mary Beth Lewis, had what seems to be an addiction and committed fraud to feed it. Obviously, the unregulated system we have in the US is absolutely not working.
Basically this incredibly wealthy woman Cindy Bi was treating the lives and health of these surrogates as if they were disposable and not being forthcoming with genetic issues on her husbands side that led to one of the women getting an emergency hysterectomy. And then using her immense wealth to harass this single mother and even sent a photo of a dead fetus to the school age child of one of the surrogates. Just horrifying behavior from this mega rich woman.
Definitely need more regulations. Maybe we should outlaw it.
Having bio children isnt a right, by which I mean that if you can't have them yourself, you arent entitled to have someone else make and gestate them for you.
It can be a very nice thing when it happens, but there are such horrific abuses possible too, and getting justice is basically dependant on wealth. When someone who is rich enough to buy a surrogacy decides to go after the surrogate like Cindy Bi did, they can steamrolled their way with wealth. The human interest of protecting vulnerable women from exploitation that way overpowers the human interest of letting people rent a human incubator so they can have bio babies.
I don't know about outlawing. I see parallels with sex work, which I also believe should be legal and heavily regulated for worker safety. The biggest difference though is that sex work only affects the individuals participating, whereas surrogacy often leads to a baby. But as with sex work, if surrogacy is outlawed here, rich people will hire surrogates in other countries with even fewer protections and even higher chance of exploitation. I think the best thing would be to have nationwide laws that heavily regulate surrogacy including the IVF clinics that facilitate it and allow for full coverage of healthcare and legal services for surrogates.
Is there a link to this not behind a paywall by any chance?
Echo the person above: we're getting more and more evidence that the US has totally backward surrogacy laws that are leading to abuse and horror for the children and women involved. I wish the law would change to be in line with the UK and EU.
US laws related to anything that involves healthcare will never be able to mirror laws in the EU and UK, because our medicine is privatized. We can't legislate our way out of the mess we created by failing to provide universal healthcare. When citizens don't have a right to healthcare, that decision has tentacles that reach out and infect everything in the system.
Longreads-ModTeam | a day ago
Unfortunately your post has been removed because the article was already posted to the subreddit within the past 90 days.
ah3019 | a day ago
This article was so horrifying. There have now been 3 articles in the course of 1 year about millionaires abusing surrogates and the surrogacy system in the US. In addition to this article, there was the infamous Wired one about Cindy Bi, and the Business Insider one about Greg Lindberg. And also the couple in the NYT were not millionaires, but were continuing to have babies well into their 60s through surrogacy--the wife, Mary Beth Lewis, had what seems to be an addiction and committed fraud to feed it. Obviously, the unregulated system we have in the US is absolutely not working.
bigyittiezz | a day ago
The Cindy Bi article was horrifying. I felt so bad for the surrogates.
Logical-Weird2272 | a day ago
fr can you explain a bit more? not sure i get what ur saying, but i'm curious
bigyittiezz | a day ago
Basically this incredibly wealthy woman Cindy Bi was treating the lives and health of these surrogates as if they were disposable and not being forthcoming with genetic issues on her husbands side that led to one of the women getting an emergency hysterectomy. And then using her immense wealth to harass this single mother and even sent a photo of a dead fetus to the school age child of one of the surrogates. Just horrifying behavior from this mega rich woman.
FlyAwayJai | a day ago
Don’t forget sharing her surrogates name and contact info(including home address) online so that Cindy’s friends could harass her too.
ZealCrow | a day ago
Definitely need more regulations. Maybe we should outlaw it.
Having bio children isnt a right, by which I mean that if you can't have them yourself, you arent entitled to have someone else make and gestate them for you.
It can be a very nice thing when it happens, but there are such horrific abuses possible too, and getting justice is basically dependant on wealth. When someone who is rich enough to buy a surrogacy decides to go after the surrogate like Cindy Bi did, they can steamrolled their way with wealth. The human interest of protecting vulnerable women from exploitation that way overpowers the human interest of letting people rent a human incubator so they can have bio babies.
kazuwacky | a day ago
The ideal change would be to make compensation illegal like most countries.
ah3019 | a day ago
I don't know about outlawing. I see parallels with sex work, which I also believe should be legal and heavily regulated for worker safety. The biggest difference though is that sex work only affects the individuals participating, whereas surrogacy often leads to a baby. But as with sex work, if surrogacy is outlawed here, rich people will hire surrogates in other countries with even fewer protections and even higher chance of exploitation. I think the best thing would be to have nationwide laws that heavily regulate surrogacy including the IVF clinics that facilitate it and allow for full coverage of healthcare and legal services for surrogates.
Fantastic-Habit5551 | a day ago
Is there a link to this not behind a paywall by any chance?
Echo the person above: we're getting more and more evidence that the US has totally backward surrogacy laws that are leading to abuse and horror for the children and women involved. I wish the law would change to be in line with the UK and EU.
shanrock2772 | a day ago
https://archive.ph/2026.02.20-042115/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/02/16/the-babies-kept-in-a-mysterious-los-angeles-mansion
Fantastic-Habit5551 | a day ago
Thank you so much
straberi93 | a day ago
US laws related to anything that involves healthcare will never be able to mirror laws in the EU and UK, because our medicine is privatized. We can't legislate our way out of the mess we created by failing to provide universal healthcare. When citizens don't have a right to healthcare, that decision has tentacles that reach out and infect everything in the system.
effie-sue | a day ago
Link and comments from when this was shared two weeks ago:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Longreads/s/sRl9UZ7l3Z