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Your argument is coherent and based on good reason. I agree. There is all the difference in the world between adopting those who have already been born under unfortunate circumstances and improving their lives and futures and ‘ordering’ a baby as one orders a turkey from the meat counter of the grocery store.

Those who are ‘ordering’ babies are likely the same class of wealthy yuppies who waited too long to go the traditional family route because they were too involved in their own selfish interests (careers, sleeping around, traveling, whatever) and are now placing custom orders for their children.

This appeals to two types: capitalists who don’t mind making a profit from unnecessary human reproduction and anti-establishment types who are seeking ‘alternatives’ to the traditional, Judeo-Christian family.

The key here is unnecessary human reproduction. If there were a genuine shortage of repopulation numbers, that would lend some credibility to the concept. But as long as there are too many people already being born in certain parts of the world, there is no need for surrogacy.

Oh, there is also a third element to this. I’m not sure exactly what it is, but it is a type that doesn’t like to buy used cars or used houses, a certain nouveau riche element that likes things to be brand spanking new, custom ordered, custom tailored. They want to order a child. They don’t like the idea of ‘owning’ someone else’s throw-away or used article. Pretty sad state of affairs.

A surrogacy arrangement doesn't incline so much toward a parent-child relationship, as a customer-product relationship. You pays your money and you takes your choice. The customer is always right. It scares me to think what's going to happen to these poor kids ("products") when they show themselves to be insufficiently cute or insufficiently smart, or just generally fail to provide the hoped-for level of customer satisfaction.

I remember reading an article years ago in a newspaper published in Howard County, MD (a rather wealthy county which includes the "planned community" of Columbia, MD) about the rate of child abuse in Howard County, which exceeded that of most other counties in MD.

Turns out that child abuse is not only associated with such low-class behaviors as out-of-wedlock unplanned pregnancy, single-parenting, welfare, etc. It's also associated with wealthy, control-freak parents who demand a planned, perfect and privileged child, and who freak out when the kid acts like a kid, i.e. imperfect.

If you've spent $40,000 on an in-vitro-plus-surrogacy exotic import custom designed baby, you're likely going to have sky-high standards for customer satisfaction. If he turns out to be just an average kid, you may feel a little defrauded. If he cries and gets snot running out of his nose, you may feel definitely ripped off, investment-wise. And if he dribbles his organic pomegranate smoothie all over your $18,000 Versace Blue Barocco Velvet on Silver Leaf Sofa Set, you may just grab him by the neck and throw him against a wall.

It happens.

I'm not saying that never happens to a natural-begotten baby. I am saying that obtaining your child in a commercial transaction will tend to heighten the perception that he's something you acquired to satisfy your needs. And that's a dangerous state of affairs.

I am convinced that God designed natural marital sexual love, pregnancy, childbirth and nursing to maximize the instinctual bonding and personal, intimate, bodily attachment between a mother and her child. Deliberately designing a new physical paradigm of motherhood (e.g. surrogacy) violates the wholeness God intended, and deprives the child of the natural protections God designed.