Live Action is reporting that “a well-known and controversial bioethicist expressed shock and dismay that women’s rights groups largely oppose surrogacy, while he feels it must remain legal and accessible.”

Arthur Caplan, head of the Division of Medical Ethics at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, is dismayed that so many women, including some women’s rights groups are opposing surrogacy.

Caplan then moved on to call children a right to which adults are entitled (emphasis added):

Surrogates can be either altruistic or commercial, where intended parents find women willing to bear their child for payment. Altruistic surrogacy is ethically noble and surely ought not be prohibited anywhere in the world.

Commercial surrogacy primarily benefits wealthy people who can afford to pay a surrogate, and private clinics ready to profit handsomely.

Still, those implementing or calling for bans don’t acknowledge a key ethical value — the right to have a genetically related child.”

Thanks for Live Action for their reporting on this. I believe this is going to be the front on the culture war.

Let’s get straight to the point. IVF, surrogacy, abortion are not just medical procedures. No, they’re tools, weapons, mirrors; reflections of a culture that’s lost its grip on humanity. And in that loss, we find ourselves dehumanizing others, turning life into a commodity, a transaction, a problem to be solved.

First, IVF. Fertility clinics, factories, really, where eggs are harvested, embryos created like products on a conveyor belt. It’s science, sure, but it’s also an act of reduction. Life becomes a series of cells, a set of parameters. No longer a miracle, no longer a mystery. It’s a puzzle to be solve, manipulated, perfected. The embryo isn’t a person. It’s an object. If you have too many, you…reduce them.

If they’re imperfect…make them perfecter. That’s what transhumanism offers. Open up the hood and monkey around until you’ve got the kid you can be proud of.

Then, surrogacy. Here’s a woman, carrying a fetus. Her own body is sold into service. She becomes a vessel, a means to an end. The child? A product, a package to be delivered. The human bond, the maternal instinct is erased. She’s a factory worker, a means to an end. And the child? An afterthought, a commodity bought and sold in a marketplace of desperate desires. It’s not about love or connection; it’s about control, ownership.

Finally, abortion. When we decide whether a fetus lives or dies, we’re deciding whether it’s human enough to matter. And if it’s inconvenient, unwanted, or too small, well, then it’s not quite human. It’s a problem, a burden. Dehumanization isn’t just about denying life; it’s about denying humanity. If you can reduce a life to a choice, an inconvenience, or a piece of tissue, then you’re stripping away its inherent dignity. Together, these practices—IVF, surrogacy, abortion—they’re a triad of dehumanization. They reflect a society that’s forgotten that human life isn’t a commodity. It’s not a problem. Life is a miracle.

Life is a gift from God, not a problem to be solved, a product to be bought, or a choice to be made. It’s a sacred thing, inherently human, and once we start treating it otherwise, we’ve already lost our way. In the end, what’s at stake isn’t just the life of a fetus or the rights of a woman. It’s our own humanity. Because if we can turn life into a transaction, then what’s left? Nothing but a society of dehumanized consumers, each one a fragment of what it means to be truly human.