When Baby-Making Becomes a Business: The Moral Problem with Surrogacy (Trending with Timmerie)

As Catholics, we are called to look honestly at surrogacy and in vitro fertilization (IVF), not simply because the Church says “no,” but because these practices reveal a deeper moral crisis about how we understand human life. On Trending, Timmerie explains why surrogacy is inseparable from IVF, a process that routinely creates multiple embryos, many of whom are discarded, frozen indefinitely, or lost along the way. Human life becomes something manufactured, managed, and contracted for, rather than received as a gift. In today’s culture, baby-making has been commodified. If enough money is involved, a child can be ordered, transferred, or replaced. This mentality treats the human person as a product, not an end in himself or herself. The Church has consistently taught, drawing from thinkers like St. Thomas Aquinas, that the only proper attitude toward another human being is love, and that no person should ever be reduced to a means to an end. Timmerie highlights how casually this loss of life is often discussed in IVF circles. Stories shared online may celebrate that “five embryos are left” or “one survived,” but rarely pause to grieve the many children who died in the process. We are not talking about failed experiments or plants that did not take root. We are talking about human beings. At the same time, the Church makes an important distinction: every child conceived through IVF or surrogacy is fully loved by God and possesses infinite dignity. Critiquing the method is not a rejection of the child. It is possible, and necessary, to affirm the goodness of the person while naming the injustice of the process. Surrogacy also places serious physical and psychological burdens on women, especially gestational carriers, who often face higher medical risks and deep emotional wounds. Consent and contracts do not make exploitation just. As Timmerie reminds us, just because we can manipulate biology does not mean we should. The best way to listen to the Best of the Week is on our #1 Free Catholic App. It’s free, and always will be! To get and share the Relevant Radio app, check it out here.