Rosie O’Donnell asks surrogate to carry a baby for her, and then cancels when the baby has special needs

There’s a problem with things like IVF and surrogacy: it turns children into products to be bought and sold, and then thrown away when the “product” turns out to be defective. The latest case in point comes from lesbian comedienne Rosie O’Donnell.

O’Donnell and her ex-wife, Michelle Rounds, had hired a surrogate, Jamie Weaver, to carry their first daughter, Dakota. They then asked her to carry a second baby, but when O’Donnell found out the baby had some medical issues, she cancelled the adoption.

Dakota’s biological mother, Jami Weaver, had agreed to carry another child for the couple but their arrangement was canceled when O’Donnell learned the child had gastroschisis, which is a birth defect of the abdominal wall that causes the bowl to protrude into the abdomen. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), about 1,871 babies are born each year in the United States with gastroschisis. Weaver explained,
“Rosie told me she could not handle having a special needs child.”

Just curious, Rosie: what would you do if your daughter, Dakota, got into an accident of some kind and now had to live with some kind of disability? Since apparently Rosie “can’t handle” kids with “issues,” it would be interesting to see if that attitude is applied to her born child, as well as the preborn.

Finally, this sad story illustrates part of the problem with surrogacy. Women who volunteer to carry babies are often treated as if they are slaves— as if their bodies belong to the parents they are carrying for. Weaver wanted to have a tubal ligation, and didn’t do so upon O’Donnell’s request. She thought she might have to have an abortion just because the baby was a boy. And when the baby Weaver was carrying was “faulty,” O’Donnell abandoned both the baby and Weaver. Weaver does not disclose what happened to the little boy she was carrying, leaving one to worry that he became the victim of a late-term abortion, after O’Donnell backed out of the adoption.

We need to remember that all people, including those who have not been born yet, are human beings with worth and dignity. They are not products to be bought and sold; they are not things that we can own and throw away at will.
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