Stop Celebrating Men For Renting Wombs And Buying Babies

Pentatonix singer and current Dancing With The Stars competitor Scott Hoying took advantage of the show’s “dedication night” on Tuesday to announce that he and his “husband” are buying a baby via surrogacy. 

Of course, that’s not the word Hoying or the overeager reporters used in their post-dance interviews with Hoying, his partner Mark, and dance partner Rylee Arnold.

“We’re having a baby,” Scott and Mark announced in a video posted to Instagram and aired on the show. “Our surrogate is pregnant. We’re going to be dads.”

“Were you rehearsing when you found out you were having a baby, you were pregnant?” one reporter asked, unfazed by the absurdity of referring to two men as “pregnant” because they are renting a woman’s womb. 

Scott and Mark’s decision adds them to a long train of celebrity-types who’ve boarded the baby-buying trend. But as has frequently been reported in these pages, surrogacy creates a host of concerns, like the mass disposal of human embryos created through IVF, disconnection from one side of a child’s family, practical problems like difficulty accessing medical records, and more bioethical problems. But not least of these issues caused by IVF and surrogacy is the fact that the process robs a child of the knowledge and presence of his true mother.

Surrogacy on behalf of a gay couple typically requires one “mother” to furnish the egg, and another to carry the baby. A third “mother” is often introduced when the child searches for a woman to fill his innate maternal needs, described by Katy Faust as the “social mother.”

Surrogacy commodifies both woman and child, as prospective parents choose desirable traits during the IVF process, and compensate — with tens of thousands of dollars — the birth mother. While surrogacy agencies often require that would-be parents undergo a screening, there is no across-the-board requirement for an adoption-like vetting process to ensure a safe and appropriate home for the child, as Faust has noted in these pages.

As the Federalist has previously reported, unfettered surrogacy throws the door open for pedophiles to gain immediate access and “care of” babies and kids. Mark Newton, for example, was sentenced to 40 years in prison after he and his partner subjected the boy born by international surrogate to sickening sexual abuse over the first six years of his life.

In an interview following his Dancing With The Stars routine, Hoying heralded “queer” representation in entertainment. “Growing up we didn’t see a lot of queer couples on TV — ever — and like I just like really, really hope that there’s queer kids out there that like feel like their story deserves to be told, and like they can find love and live their dreams,” Scott said. Like others who buy babies with the intention of taking them away from their mothers, Scott and Mark appear to view the child as a means to fulfill their own “dreams,” without regard for the baby’s best interests.

In Janaury Faust shared a story in The Federalist of a little girl born by surrogate for two men, describing her ongoing search to discover whom she was supposed to look to as her mother. She and other surrogate-born children “must grapple with the fact that eliminating their right to be known and loved by their mother was necessary to advance their fathers’ queer utopia,” Faust wrote.

Heartbreakingly, Hoying’s baby will have to do the same.