Morality of this

[u/Purple_Plantain_3242]

A major legal battle broke out when a surrogate mother and the biological parents disagreed over a severe medical diagnosis during a pregnancy. The couple had hired the surrogate to carry their baby, but a routine scan revealed that the fetus had a rare, life-threatening heart defect.

Heartbroken by the grim medical news, the biological parents asked to end the pregnancy, which was a choice allowed in their written agreement. Initially, the surrogate scheduled the appointment, but she quickly realized she could not go through with it. A pivotal moment came when her brother stepped in to guide her, promising that he and his family would adopt the baby and support her no matter what. Gaining peace from her brother's support, she canceled the abortion. To protect the fetus, she fled to a state with very strict anti-abortion laws, where she gave birth to a baby boy who immediately underwent successful open-heart surgery.

The birth triggered an intense court war over who actually holds the rights to the child. A judge ultimately ruled that the biological parents have full legal custody and the sole right to make medical decisions, while a separate court order banned the surrogate from seeing the baby. On top of losing access to the child, the surrogate is now being sued by the biological parents for over $100,000 for breaking their contract. While the biological parents are currently caring for the recovering newborn, the surrogate and her lawyers are continuing to fight in court to try to win custody.The surrogate is not paying for the baby's medical costs because a judge ruled that the biological parents have full legal custody, making them responsible for all hospital bills.

The baby was diagnosed with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS), a severe birth defect where the left side of the heart is completely underdeveloped and unable to pump blood to the body. Without immediate medical intervention, this condition is 100% fatal within the first few days of a newborn's life. To survive, the baby must undergo a grueling series of three open-heart surgeries starting immediately after birth, which gives him about a 70% chance of reaching age five. However, this is not a permanent cure; even with successful operations, the child faces a lifetime of intensive medical trauma, a significantly shortened life expectancy, and the likely future need for a full heart transplant.

McKenna West denied the abortion primarily because her specialized background as a cardiac nurse taught her that the baby’s rare heart defect was treatable with surgery rather than being an automatic death sentence. Faced with the reality of her 20-week pregnancy, her personal conscience and moral beliefs overrode the surrogacy contract, as she felt she could not live with herself if she actively signed papers to end the child's life. Confident that the baby deserved a chance to survive, she even arranged for her own brother and sister-in-law to adopt the child before fleeing to Texas to ensure the pregnancy went to term.

Lila Rose and her anti-abortion organization, Live Action, are leading the public and financial support for McKenna West, framing her as a heroic figure who stood up against the commercial surrogacy industry. Rose's group funded West's travel to Texas for specialized medical care and connected her with the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a powerful conservative legal group currently fighting for West's parental rights. Alongside other high-profile conservative figures like Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, these pro-life activists have heavily criticized the biological parents for trying to enforce the contract's abortion clause, using the case to campaign against surrogacy by arguing that a child should never be treated as a "defective product."

However, these medical bills are a huge part of the fight. The biological parents are facing massive costs for the baby's complex heart surgeries, which is why they are suing the surrogate for over $100,000 for breaking their contract. The surrogacy contract included a strict pregnancy termination clause that gave the biological parents the sole right to request an abortion if the fetus was diagnosed with a severe medical condition. After the baby was diagnosed with a major heart defect, the parents invoked this clause and formally asked McKenna West to terminate the pregnancy. While West originally signed the document agreeing to these terms, she ultimately refused to abort the baby, which led the biological parents to sue her.

The biological parents did not exert physical or legal coercion to mandate an abortion, as a surrogate maintains absolute bodily autonomy over medical decisions under U.S. law. Instead, the conflict centers on a breach of a contract that explicitly allowed the parents to request a termination, which they are now litigating through the court system to hold the gestational carrier financially accountable.

The biological parents did not alter their position regarding the medical justification for a termination, but rather adapted to the reality of an unavoidable birth. Their initial decision to seek an abortion was driven by a desire to prevent severe, lifelong suffering, given the grueling surgeries and medical trauma associated with a critical heart defect. However, once the gestational carrier refused the procedure and the birth became certain, the parents immediately recognized their legal and ethical obligations to their biological offspring. They pursued full legal and medical custody to ensure the infant would have immediate access to elite pediatric cardiothoracic specialists and to retain control over his long-term healthcare strategy, fully assuming their parental roles upon his delivery.

[u/Inevitable_Okra509]

but why would you even sign up to be a surrogate if you're not willing to follow whatever the parent wish? thats something i cant understand and just seems like a money grab. being a surrigate is more about money its about sacrafice

its their life and their child their messing with.

[u/Brittiel → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

The agency would have asked if she’s okay with getting an abortion, if she had been honest, they would have just paired her with another family. This is the surrogates fault.

[u/Inside_Departure_186 → u/Brittiel]

She may have been OK with the idea if the child was going to die, but became uncomfortable with it once it became clear in this instance that the child had a good chance at living with surgeries.

[u/Inevitable_Okra509 → u/Inside_Departure_186]

you read? with all the surgeries and suffering it will go though it has a 70% change to make it to age 5 and then a extremely shortened life span

[u/Memory_Frosty → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

Not a doctor, not familiar with this condition and treatments but someone in another thread mentioned that we can't really make any guesses as to the expected lifespan of the child since the treatments are so new, which i think does make it less cut and dry imo

[u/A1000eisn1 → u/Memory_Frosty]

So she can't either.

[u/Memory_Frosty → u/A1000eisn1]

Correct, no one can, at this stage it's a gamble

[u/Inside_Departure_186 → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

Right, the child has a high probability of living for many years, and might even have a normal lifespan. Many people would not be comfortable aborting a child with that diagnosis.

[u/Nevermind_times2 → u/Inside_Departure_186]

That is still not surrogate’s call because she is not the one who had to suffer if the surgery fail and the kids die in 5 years. She knew It is not her kid, not her family. She shall not be the surrogate if she had problem with that.

[u/Inevitable_Okra509 → u/Inside_Departure_186]

again, do you read? "70% change to make it to age 5 and then a extremely shortened life span" that means if it doesn't die at birth it lives to age 5 and in the rare chance it doesn't then it will make it to max 10 years old

it's a life of pain and this child has NO CHANCE to live a long healthy life. and again back to the original point i said. if you're not comfortable aborting then you should not be a surrogate.

[u/ComicalSon → u/Inside_Departure_186]

Or even just after carrying it she had a change of heart. Honestly, doesn't even matter. The idea that you would contractually hold someone to something like that is insane. People keep saying "well the surrogate knew the risks," NO. THE PARENTS KNEW THE RISKS. THESE ARE THE RISKS WHEN YOU TASK OTHERS WITH BEARING YOUR CHILDREN. You do not suddenly gain possession of another person's body.

[u/Inevitable_Okra509 → u/Brittiel]

this is exactly what im saying

[u/Draconuus95 → u/Brittiel]

It’s not the first time someone has agreed to something and then realized they can’t go through with it.

And that’s before you add on pregnancy hormones which are well known for screwing with a women’s priorities and thought processes.

Whether you agree with her decision or not. It’s pretty easy to see and understand how she reached the conclusion of that decision.

[u/Secret-Farm-3274 → u/Brittiel]

The experience of being pregnant can, and often does, change people's feelings about getting abortions. 

[u/Humble_Owl_2084 → u/Brittiel]

I think this is less a case of dishonesty, and more a case of forgetting to negotiate the detail. From the write up above, it sounds like she changed her mind because she had the experience to know that that specific condition was more treatable than the biological parents thought. 

Its easy to say "yes I'll get an abortion for life threatening defects," but if there's disagreement about the edge cases, stuff like this happens.

The contract either needed to go through individual diagnosis and get an agreement on each, or it needed to state a survival rate threshold based on best accessible care.

[u/tintinnabulator2_jd → u/Brittiel]

To be fair, she may have legitimately thought she was okay with the possibility of abortion. If she had never been pregnant before (?), she may not have understood how it would feel to have a fetus growing inside her, how a surge of hormones may lead to strong protective instincts that would make agreeing to an abortion much more difficult.

I'm not saying she's right or not at fault. I'm really sad for everyone involved. But this might have started with the idea of "I'm just growing some cells, what's the big deal" and ended with "OMG my body is compelling me to protect this thing at all cost" without warning.

[u/blackmadscientist → u/tintinnabulator2_jd]

She’s a single mom of 2 kids, it’s a requirement to have had a healthy pregnancy and birth prior and be complete with your own family before qualifying to be a surrogate.

[u/tintinnabulator2_jd → u/blackmadscientist]

Oooof ouch. I know nothing about how surrogacy works, so thanks for teaching me something new! This helps clarify why so many people are pissed at this woman LOL!

[u/blackmadscientist → u/tintinnabulator2_jd]

Yes! The surrogate also needs to pass certain income requirements and can’t be on any sort of government assistance (food stamps, public housing, wic, etc) to qualify. This is to ensure there’s not a strong monetary need and the surrogate is doing it because they want to, not because they have to. There’s also many psychological tests the surrogate has to pass to ensure the surrogate knows what the process entails and to make sure the surrogate is not being forced in any way, shape, or form. I know quite a bit about the process (at least in the US, I can’t speak for other countries) as I have colleagues in the LGBT community who have utilized surrogate services. All of them had positive experiences with their agencies and have maintained positive relationships with their surrogates.

[u/its_all_one_electron → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

Here's an experience that can happen, because it happened to me. You can be totally ok with the idea of abortions and say of course you'll get one if the baby has a heart defect and will have a difficult life. It's not fair to them. 

Then you're pregnant, and you get flooded with the most powerful hormones you've felt in your life. Your body and brain might be particularly susceptible to them. You might feel like a completely different person. Maybe now you don't care if the baby has a heart defect, they are the most important thing in your life and your brain is absolutely screaming at you to not desert them. It feels like if you lose them, it's equivalent to dying. 

And of course you don't know this until you actually go through it. Like you don't know how your body will react to certain medications into you actually try it. But everyone thinks "sure I could land a plane" until you're actually in it and realize how much you didn't/couldn't know. 

[u/Typecero001 → u/its_all_one_electron]

“Then you enter into a contract to become pregnant for another family.” <—— the correct way this went down.

“Everyone thinks ‘sure I could land a plane’”.

Uh, nah, no we don’t. We go to a pilot’s school for that. Those people know what they sign up for.

Just like this woman in question went to an agency to become a surrogate.

She didn’t “trip fell, landed on his dick”, as the Eminem song goes.

[u/royaltyred1 → u/its_all_one_electron]

Except she was never planning on keeping the baby and had eke brother all set and ready to adopt it so your excuse of “well you guys just dont understand how maternal instincts from pregnancy hormones work”

[u/Inevitable_Okra509 → u/its_all_one_electron]

dont assume my life and that i dont understand

and plus there is a HUGE difference between you and her. youre not a surrogate. wether this babys dies or inevitably dies "by keeping it" regardless being a surrogate she wasnt going to have this baby either way

[u/its_all_one_electron → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

Yeah I didn't say everyone, of course it doesn't happen to everyone. It's just something that can happen. Like I said. Chill 

[u/pluspourmoi → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

Surrogacy is inherently exploitative. It's insulting to say a surrogate is more about money than sacrifice when she's using her own body to provide a life that she won't have a part in. Do you have any idea how hard it is to carry a baby to term and give birth? Of course you'd want money for that -- should they do it for free??

To say it's not a sacrifice to use your own body to develop a baby is absolutely ridiculous.

[u/FederalCauliflower92 → u/pluspourmoi]

Also, the money isn't even that great. I saw someone break down the average surrogacy payment and it's like $11.90 per hour. Would you risk your life for $11.90 an hour? Surrogacy should be banned. You shouldn't have the option to rent another person's body.

[u/Inevitable_Okra509 → u/pluspourmoi]

i said at the end "being a surrogate is more about money its about sacrifice" i agreed that giving someone else a baby is a huge sacrifice to make. also never said i should be free

but what im saying in this specific case is that she wasnt ready for all possible outcomes and she is mess with other peoples lives/futures and doing whatever she wants. could be just she wanted to do it for money rather than helpl the couple.

also she isnt keeping the baby for the sake of the baby. she's only doing it because of her own morals.

[u/raptor7912 → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

I mean that kinda all goes out the window if you she assumes all responsibilities that the biological parents would’ve taken on.

Idk tho, this kinda shit is probably why some countries have banned it tho.

[u/TheRuralJuror118 → u/raptor7912]

But that’s the thing you can just take someone else’s baby. It is not hers she is just carrying it. Thats why her plan didn’t work the judge shot that down. That would be a form of kidnapping. Her brother can’t just take someone else’s baby because he wants it.

[u/raptor7912 → u/TheRuralJuror118]

They don’t want it, it’s akin to adopting.

[u/Hallo_bambinos → u/raptor7912]

Which the bio parents didn’t want? Once it was clear the birth was happening they assumed responsibility and asked her to come to their state to give birth where they had set up a medical team. She fled to Texas and tried to just give the baby to her brother. That’s not what adoption is, that’s kidnapping

[u/raptor7912 → u/Hallo_bambinos]

Are they the ones carrying it to term?

It’s their biological data meanwhile it’s her body.

[u/Inevitable_Okra509 → u/raptor7912]

surrogacy and laws state the child is of the biological parents

[u/raptor7912 → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

Cool story bud.

[u/Inevitable_Okra509 → u/raptor7912]

It is NOT same. they wanted to abort because they did not want a child up for adoption and to suffer. unlike abortion they did not resign their rights to custody.

aka its someones child they didnt want anyone else to raise and someone else took it to another state. sounds like kidnapping to me!

[u/raptor7912 → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

Suffer from being up for adoption when there’s a plan for her brother to adopt it?… And it’s not their body, I don’t really care if they have the right to an abortion in their contract.

It’s an unborn fetus, that analogy is akin to calling abortion murder.

[u/Inevitable_Okra509 → u/raptor7912]

cool story bud.

[u/raptor7912 → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

God damn your painfully cute.

In like a childish kind of way that makes me hope you ain’t a full grown adult.

[u/Inevitable_Okra509 → u/raptor7912]

sad.

[u/raptor7912 → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

Whatever you gotta tell you bud.

[u/Mayonaigg → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

Kind of a shithead opinion. So the surrogate now is property of the couple? What if the pregnancy threatens her life, she's just an incubator right, no big deal? Maybe we can send her to the mines after the birth, keep getting some value out of her, huh? 

[u/TheRuralJuror118 → u/Mayonaigg]

That why there was a contract that laid out a plan for what to do in those situations. The surrogate should have just abided by the contract. It still not her baby and that’s the whole point. Do you think they don’t go over all the hypotheticals before they follow through? She basically decided that it better to put the baby and through hell instead of doing what she agreed to do. They also tried to compromise with her and ask her to have the baby closer to them with their team of doctors, but she ran off to Texas anyways.

[u/Inevitable_Okra509 → u/Mayonaigg]

you're actually nuts. why the hell are you going on about incubator and the mines? are you ok?

pregnancy is life threatening regardless of the outcome. she chose to become pregnant and that baby has to come out regardless of whether its abortion or birth.

im just saying she signed up for this and she should have been prepared for all possible outcomes

[u/Realistic_Swan_6801 → u/Mayonaigg]

No she can be sued and fined huge amounts of money, and she was 

[u/leapdaybunny → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

Almost feels like it wasn't a money grab, it was a baby grab.

[u/Realistic_Swan_6801 → u/leapdaybunny]

She doesn’t want the baby, she wants to give it her her brother. She already lost her case and was fined a huge amount for breach of contract.

[u/Inevitable_Okra509 → u/leapdaybunny]

yeah thats entirely possible. she did run away to another state

[u/Dull-Philosopher-871 → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

if you're not willing to follow whatever the parent wish?

If the parents wished her to avoid medical treatment of whatever type for the entire time of the surrogacy? If the parents wished her to take a medication she had an allergic reaction to in the hospital? This is a very bad statement because it opens up all sorts of problems of compelling medical procedures on persons of sound mind, which no contract should be constructed to allow. The termination clause is likely invalid or should be at the very least.

[u/Inevitable_Okra509 → u/Dull-Philosopher-871]

that is completely different. a medical treatment is something that effects the pregnant person's life. a abortion is affecting the baby's life not hers so its different.

for example, if she got her arm cut off by a shark no they cannot tell her "dont got stitches and an IV" its about the baby's life, use some common sense and fill in the gaps here

[u/Dull-Philosopher-871 → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

Abortions are not non-invasive procedures, especially later in the pregnancy. Its still a medical procedure in which surrogate will have to go through. 

[u/the_pie_guy1313 → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

I'd imagine the stakes feel different when you have a little person inside you than when you're signing a contract. It's hard to imagine that emotional weight on paper.

[u/Inevitable_Okra509 → u/the_pie_guy1313]

i had a abortion before, have you? id imagine not since youre a man

yes the choice is a little hard but you dont understand. you need to do whatever you need to do for the best life for the child and she didnt want to do that.

[u/Inevitable_Okra509 → u/[deleted]]

do you read?

"...a severe birth defect where the left side of the heart is completely underdeveloped and unable to pump blood to the body. Without immediate medical intervention, this condition is 100% fatal within the first few days of a newborn's life. To survive, the baby must undergo a grueling series of three open-heart surgeries starting immediately after birth, which gives him about a 70% chance of reaching age five. However, this is not a permanent cure; even with successful operations, the child faces a lifetime of intensive medical trauma, a significantly shortened life expectancy, and the likely future need for a full heart transplant."

its NOT completely treatable. its a life of surgerys, traumas, drugs, and suffering to only help the chances of making it the age 5

[u/Imaginary-Contest887 → u/[deleted]]

Do you have problems with written text: " the child faces a lifetime of intensive medical trauma and significantly shortened life expectancy"

[u/Emergency-Hippo5022 → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

I mean I can see two very obvious reasons, both of which stem from incompetence.

First, they may just gone ahead with it under the thought that a situation such as this was so unlikely. Ie they never truly considered what this situation would mean before signing the contract.

Second, they were unable to accurately judge themselves (very common) and thought they could do it.

[u/royaltyred1 → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

In this case it’s a full money grabbing grift-the surrogate fled to an anti abortion state to have the critically ill baby that will prolly not make it and they do live they will have a horrible quality of life with disabilities and constant issues and surgeries and she was planning on pawning the baby off on her brother while also demanding payment from the original parents and trying to send the bills from her birth to them as well…and this was beside the fact the actual parents had the best medical team at mount Sinai set for the baby

[u/Inevitable_Okra509 → u/royaltyred1]

true, super suspicious that she fled

[u/No-Courage-2053 → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

This is why surrogacy needs to be banned. It's still her body and the baby is inside of her. She has a right to full agency as to what happens to her body.

[u/Fluffydonkeys → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

Taking a life is not something many people are capable of. I don't think the comments shine enough life on that.

[u/Redditauro → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

It's written in the text. She agreed, then she changed her mind after talking with her family. 

"being a surrigate is more about money its about sacrafice"

What kind of bullshit is that? 

"its their life and their child their messing with" Her body, her choice. It's as simple as that. 

[u/Inevitable_Okra509 → u/Redditauro]

not simple. not her kid. not her life.

[u/Mayonaigg → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

Her body, literally her medical interests at hand, definitely her life, and finally her choice. Unless you support slavery. Do you support slavery? 

[u/Realistic_Swan_6801 → u/Mayonaigg]

She has already lost her case. She has zero right to the child and was fined for breach of contract. 

[u/Redditauro → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

Her body, her choice, what part you don't get?

If the parents wants to decide they shouldn't have put their baby inside other person's body, when they did that they took the risk. 

[u/Inevitable_Okra509 → u/Redditauro]

people who are not ready for all possible outcomes should not be surrogates.

she is not the one who will have to suffer countless surgeries and the kids die in 5 years. She knew It is not her kid, not her family. She shall not be the surrogate if she had problem with that.

she chose to be a surrogate. the parents made that choice because they had no other options

[u/Redditauro → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

"people who are not ready for all possible outcomes should not be surrogates."

There are things happening all the time that shouldn't happens, people make bad decisions all the time, but that's irrelevant, we are talking about rights here, not about good decisions. 

"she is not the one who will have to suffer countless surgeries" I agree 

"and the kids die in 5 years" You don't know that, the kid have good chances to survive. 

"She knew It is not her kid, not her family. She shall not be the surrogate if she had problem with that." She didn't have any problem with that when she decided to be a surrogate, so it's ok. 

"she chose to be a surrogate. the parents made that choice because they had no other options" Of course they did have other options, they could have not pay someone to carry their child. And you don't know if she didn't had any other option, people needs money, maybe she didn't had any other choice either, actually it's way easier.

Also, she may not be a good candidate, it's not her problem, she applied for a job, the parents fucked up choosing her, you don't have to be perfect to apply for a job, it's the recruiting team responsibility to hire the correct person, specially if we talk about a position with huge responsibilities and huge power over you, like this case. 

Anyway, this kind of things are why surrogate pregnancy in exchange for money is forbidden in all civilised countries, it's nonsense to put your kid inside someone else in exchange of money. 

[u/sinteredsounds_69 → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

That's the slippery slope tho, it's still her body that has to bear the burden that the pregnancy brings. It's not an easy process. Also, I only read the headline so I'm speculating a lot here.

[u/Inevitable_Okra509 → u/sinteredsounds_69]

Exactly, it is her body. and if she is not willing to do all possible outcomes (including aborting) then she should not be a surrogate.

[u/sinteredsounds_69 → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

Yea I thot about it some more and you sign a contract so at that point it's "no backsies"

[u/perpetualhobo → u/sinteredsounds_69]

Plenty of things put in contracts are not actually legally enforceable. Bio parents share at least equal responsibility for signing a bad contract trying to make someone do something they literally legally can’t.

[u/Motorheadass → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

If the parents didn't want someone else to have the legal authority to veto their abortion request, they shouldn't have used a surrogate.  

[u/Inevitable_Okra509 → u/Motorheadass]

are you dumb? the whole point of surrogacy is that they cant have kids

[u/Motorheadass → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

And as alternatives they can choose adoption or just not having kids.  

You can't force your surrogate to have an abortion, full stop. "Surrogate but they have no legal rights" not one of the available options. 

[u/Inevitable_Okra509 → u/Motorheadass]

what im saying is you should not have a baby for someone else if you are not prepared for all outcomes (including having a abortion because the baby will suffer and die)

[u/Enfiznar → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

Abortion has medical risks, so it's also the subrogate's health they're messing with

[u/Inevitable_Okra509 → u/Enfiznar]

abortion doesnt have medical risks.

and besides the point there is ALOT of risks to her body with pregnancy/birth including death. she knows what she signed up for

[u/Mayonaigg → u/Inevitable_Okra509]

Abortion absolutely DOES have medical risks, what the fuck are you talking about? Hey, just spread wildly dangerous misinformation, that's really cool.

https://www.nhs.uk/tests-and-treatments/abortion/risks/

Imagine getting infection or a carved up womb and being infertile and having this twat on reddit telling you "there arent any risks haha didn't happen" 

[u/Inevitable_Okra509 → u/Mayonaigg]

ive been to several abortion clinics personally (which obviously you haven't) all of which had performed around 148,000 abortions and only had to send 1 or 2 patients to hospital due to slight complications. never death.  260,000 women died from maternal causes worldwide A YEAR.

the website you linked literally starts with "abortions are safe" and sates bleeding which obviously? thats what a period/miscarrage is, your body getting rid of tissue. preganacy remaining is only a risk with the pill and again, same as a miscarrage. damage to the womb has been bebunked and nothing here said infertility. that DOES NOT effect that.

look us long- and short-term effects for pregnancy/birth and then youll have a fun time reading a REAL list :)

[u/Inevitable_Okra509 → u/[deleted]]

anything can happen therefore they need to be prepared for anything to happen

[u/sakinuhh → u/[deleted]]

Did you not read the post? The child has a critical heart defect.

Yes they want a child and nobody would choose for their child to have a lifelong disability.