A Lack of Asian Surrogates

Surrogacy, is when a woman agrees to carry a baby for another person or couple. When surrogacy first started, it was common for the surrogate to also be the egg donor. Recently though it’s much more common to use a biologically separate egg donor. There’s less legal issues with this method, and less risk the surrogate will want to keep the baby after birth. I was surprised to find out there’s a lack of Asian surrogates in the U.S. (although no lack of them in India or the Philippines apparently).

This issue came to light since John Griffin posted a comment on my article about creating a surrogate family. His comment was essentially an advertisement looking for an Asian woman willing to act as a surrogate for a Vietnamese couple. It surprised me because it should make no difference what race the surrogate happens to be; since biologically, the baby will be the race of the biological contributors.

I’m no stranger to surrogacy since my partner and I decided to go with surrogacy to bring our daughter into this world. It didn’t even occur to us to ask for a Caucasian or an Asian surrogate. Yes, our daughter is mixed, half Asian and half Caucasian. But, she was carried by a Latino surrogate, who we were matched with through an agency. We had no preferences stated, only that the surrogate was willing to carry for a gay couple. Our surrogate was a wonderful woman, full of life and love, and she immediately found a place in our family. We still send her pictures of our daughter and keep in touch with her and her family.

I was also recently surprised that a Caucasian woman acting as a surrogate for an Asian couple would make the news. To me this shouldn’t be shocking or newsworthy. It just reflects again, how far our society has to go before race and color isn’t an issue.