Surrogacy - Women and Children LAST

Surrogacy - 'a kind lady helps a family to have children'? A familiar tale. We've all seen pics of joyful smiles, cute kids. Happy Families. But Happy Families is a game, not the real world.

What when something goes wrong? How often does this happen? What about the rights of the child? Or when a child is disabled in some way, or is a twin - common after taking fertility drugs. What are the effects of 'egg donation'? Most surrogacy is poor women in poor countries helping rich women in rich countries. Should we be concerned? Is it just outsourcing? Another form of sexual exploitation?

How much money is made by the 'surrogacy agencies'? What do the contracts say? For whose benefit are they written? Who gets legal advice? Usually last but not least, what about the rights of the child?

Is it true that one of the twins is often 'destroyed', or that one person can 'commission' a dozen children from surrogates? Are there checks to weed out paedophiles and abusers?

We have some great authorities on surrogacy lined up for you:

Kajsa Ekis Ekman, Swedish author of 'Being and Being Bought : Prostitution, Surrogacy and the Split Self'

Anna Zobnina of the European Network of Migrant Women - Surrogacy and Migrant Women

Gary Powell of the Stop Surrogacy Now! coalition - Gay Men and Surrogacy.

Prof Sheila Jeffreys, author, OBJECT board member and radical feminist extraordinaire