The Predator in the Nursery: Surrogacy’s Missing Guardrails
In the quiet suburbs of Pennsylvania, the legal machinery of “Big Fertility” recently accomplished what the adoption system is designed to prevent: It handed a newborn baby to a convicted predator. No law was broken.
In August, the name Brandon Keith Mitchell, 39, attracted a global outcry. Mr. Mitchell, a registered sex offender, didn’t have to pass a rigorous home study. He didn’t have to sit through months of psychological vetting or open his criminal history to a social worker.
While a couple seeking to adopt a child must undergo a forensic level of scrutiny, with the inspection of everything from their floor plans to their darkest personal secrets, commercial surrogacy often operates on the logic of a high-end service contract.
Are we staring down a gaping hole in the system?
