How is it possible that Lisa Wilson, in a three-sentence, 58-word letter to the editor, can raise more serious and more interesting moral issues surrounding the institution of surrogacy than Alex Kuczynski did in her entire 7,700-word cover story on the subject? I’m not sure, but that’s exactly what she did:
If prostitution is unethical, immoral and illegal, why is it O.K. for one woman to pay for the use of another woman’s body? If it’s unethical, immoral and illegal to buy and sell body parts for transplantation, why is it O.K. to rent a uterus? Our morality seems so malleable in the hands of those who feel entitled.
LISA WILSON
Yarmouth, Me.
Thank you, Ms Wilson, for nailing the real fault with this story, instead of getting sidetracked by a silly discussion about the semiotics of the accompanying photographs.