The Global Story: Why the world wants American surrogates
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Why has the United States become the world’s main destination for commercial surrogacy?
This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. World of Secrets is where untold stories are exposed. In the news series, a scandal inside one of Indonesia's vast network of Islamic boarding schools. I kept telling myself, don't end up with him alone. And how former pupils have turned detective, daring to speak out against an institution that wants them silent. Cover the shame of your teacher. World of Secrets, Catching My Teacher. Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Tänäänkin Suomessa on tuhansia rahoittamisen arvoisia yrityksiä. Nyt niillä on varaa kasvaa. Me OP-pohjalassa avasimme juuri satojen miljoonien kasvurahoituksen. Lue lisää O.fi kautta kasvurahoitus. Yrityslaina myöntää osuuspankki tai OP-yrityspankki Oj.
Hi there, it's Asma Khalid. I'm one of the hosts of the Global Story Podcast from the BBC. On our show, we try to tell one in-depth story every weekday about where the world and America meet. And this weekend we've actually got an incredibly thought-provoking bonus episode for you all. It's about the rise of commercial surrogacy in the United States, even as the practice has been largely banned or restricted in most of Europe and parts of Asia. Why are families from around the world turning to the US to find someone to carry their pregnancies? And how is this practice raising new concerns about the ethics of commercial surrogacy? That's what you're here in this show. And if you all enjoy this episode, you can always find more from us by searching for the global story wherever you get your podcasts.
Now, on to today's show. Here in the US, the surrogacy industry is booming, particularly for the wealthy and the famous. It's become a multi-billion dollar industry. But take a step outside the US and the picture looks really different. Paying someone to carry a pregnancy is banned or heavily restricted in most of Europe, and likewise in a number of other countries around the world, such as India. China and Australia. So the United States has become a global hub for commercial surrogacy. But as the practice has grown more popular and more accessible, so too have the ethical concerns. Late last year, the Wall Street Journal published the story about a Chinese billionaire who had dozens of children born in the US via surrogates.
Then, over the summer, a legal battle erupted in Texas over the fate of a baby in which the surrogate rejected the biological parents' wishes and refused to have an abortion after the fetus was diagnosed with a severe heart defect. These kinds of cases have raised all sorts of questions around surrogacy, and those questions become even thornier when you take into account that a big portion of American surrogacy is in the service of foreign parents. From the BBC, I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C., and welcome to the Global Story, our show about where the world and America meet. Today on the show, why America has become the world's surrogacy destination and why that could be about to change. Emmy Nietfeld is a reporter who covers reproductive technology and surrogacy.
Now, sitting here in the US, I don't think that I fully understood that American surrogacy is a global story. But Emmy does. She has, in fact, been covering this issue for years and recently published this wild story in New York magazine involving a surrogate in Florida and a man from China, the baby's biological parent. The two are now in a legal dispute and it is being seen as a sort of test case.
How did the Chinese billionaire case expose the risks of international surrogacy in the US?
Emmy told me the story actually begins some years ago.
During the pandemic, a man named Ted Joe, who lives in Suzhou, China, decided that he wanted to become a father. He is single and so surrogacy was his route to parenthood, but surrogacy is illegal in China. So he turned to the United States. He signed up with an agency who matched him with a woman in Florida named Kyla Simpson.
And I'm like, I'm just a young black girl trying to make it. I had a daughter. You know, I also wanted to bless someone to be able to have a child.
You know, she was in her mid twenties and she wanted to bless a family with a baby while also helping her own family gain financial stability and maybe buy a house.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why has the United States become the world’s main destination for commercial surrogacy?
0:00–3:59
2
How did the Chinese billionaire case expose the risks of international surrogacy in the US?
3:59–7:07
3
What happened in the legal battle between surrogate Kyla Simpson and intended father Ted Joe?
7:07–11:18
4
How big is the U.S. surrogacy industry and what is its economic impact?
11:18–15:09
5
Why is there no federal regulation of surrogacy in the United States and how do state laws differ?
15:09–18:21
6
How does American birth‑right citizenship influence foreign parents to choose U.S. surrogacy?
18:21–21:08
7
What political and ethical backlash is emerging against commercial surrogacy in the U.S.?
21:08–24:33
8
Will the United States remain a global surrogacy hub or could new laws end the industry?
24:33–30:19