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Tell us what you think >>
Selected submissions will be posted here, so check back regularly.
4/10/07
I have to wonder about certain purveyors of this industry as some of them come from very jaded backgrounds. It would seem to me that a background check should be in order before licenses are provided to operate this kind of enterprise. After all, one would expect that the operators should be of the highest moral and ethical character. Wouldn't it be ironic if one found that the CEO of a surrogacy firm had their entire life and education paid for by arms deals or border killings in third world countries?
10/25/06
Miriam Erez
I'm out there with Amherst, MA and Tara. I also didn't know that every egg extraction brings a woman closer to the onset of menopause. I'm still uncomfortable with surrogacy. No one's yet been able to tell me why it's superior to adopting.
9/7/06
Miriam Erez
Surrogacy reminds me of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. The part that sticks in my craw is that, to put it bluntly, it seems it's always rich white couples paying for the services of poor young women, i.e., exploiting someone else's economic desperation -- a little too close to trafficking in women for comfort.
I'm also uncomfortable with the role that race seems to play. I understand that if one is willing to adopt a child of color, plenty of infants are available. Therefore, surrogacy seems to perpetuate the commodification of white children.
I'm not an interested party. I have three biological children and advocate reproductive freedom. I'd be interested in others' responses to what I've written.
6/13/06
Karen Synesiou
Encino, California
Hello, I am one of the owners of the Center for Surrogate Parenting Inc, the agency shown in this informative and delightful documentary. I have been involved in surrogate parenting for 15 years and CSP has been in existence for 26 years. Here are a few additional thoughts that I hope will be helpful: infertility is a disease, not a choice. It is a disease like any other disease and is indiscriminate in choosing victims. Like many other diseases, there is usually no cure, but there are alternatives. Surrogacy, adoption and child-free living are all viable options for couples suffering from this disease. In our 26 years we have helped couples become parents and given children the gift of parents who really want them and love them. These parents go through a lot of counseling and emotions to create their child. These children are definitely wanted and appreciated. Not all children can say that about their parents. Surrogate mothers are very carefully screened. The average surrogate mother considers becoming a surrogate for almost 4 years before she applies to our program. The Center for Surrogate Parenting screens surrogate mothers and their husbands for 3-4 months before accepting them into our program. All surrogate mothers are loving and compassionate women who love the children they carry. They love them so much they are prepared to allow them to go home with their parents, the people who created them in their hearts and in their soles. Without the parent's actions these children would never exist. Kim, the surrogate in this documentary would simply have ovulated that month and her egg would have left her body unfertilized. Instead, out of tremendous love, Kim offered her egg to Amy and Steve. Their daughter exists because Amy and Steve willed her into existence. As with all surrogate mothers, Kim thinks about Sophia Rose often and loves her. Kim also knows that Amy and Steve are loving parents and that Sophia Rose is at home with her parents. We have seen the birth of over 1000 babies to our program. We admire surrogate mothers for the loving gifts they give and we applaud our couples for undertaking the sometimes difficult journey because they know they have so much love to give their child. Surrogacy is an option to a terrible disease. It is not a solution for all couples, but it the right option for some. I wake up every day and am grateful to be given the opportunity to be involved in this beautiful field.
6/5/06
the longer we live and the smarter we are, the more ways we find to throw a monkey wrench in what God has designed. there are too many problems in the world already: global warming, a thinning ozone layer, millions of starving people, unnecessary wars, etc. instead of trying to create the "perfect" child, we have bigger issues to which we should be using our brain power. no matter what we do to our children, they are still going to grow, get sick and die just like every other human being on this earth.
6/5/06
i definitely think that it's wrong to tamper with human DNA just to make a certain kind of child. it is like playing God and for me, there is only one. as i watched Frozen Angels my heart sank to know that human life isn't sacred anymore. it is being lowered to nothing more than choosing the kind car you want, what color it should be, etc. i find it very scary because where is the limit? how far are people willing to go? children shouldn't be science experiments but a gift from God.
5/26/06
Amy Jurewicz
Cave Creek, AZ
My name is Amy, and I am the mother of the little girl born in the film. I would like to say some things to all of you who are watching Frozen Angels and reading the website.
The image I prayed this film would imprint on your memories is in the birth scene: it is where I give a hug of happiness and thanks to Kim, our surrogate. After three years, she is still a part of our lives. I keep in touch with her by e-mail and she and her family has a standing invitation to come visit us.
Kim is a woman who has dedicated two full years of her life to helping people experience the joy of family and she is someone that I am proud to have my daughter know. The website gives a false impression of our friend. I don't believe that Kim had no care or concern for our daughter. The context for that quote in the film is open to interpretation, but in the website it is misleading. Having observed her caring behavior during the pregnancy, it is crystal-clear to me that what Kim really meant to say was that she didn't have a maternal bond to the baby, because she understood and continually reminded both herself and her family that she was carrying Sophia Rose for us.
On another subject, I would like to correct two errors in our bio.
(1) We weren't "scared off" by adoption. The fact is that when my husband contracted trigeminal neuralgia we became ineligible. We did have a "scare" prior to that; perhaps it is better described as an instance of revulsion. I was truly offended when the head of the adoption agency bluntly told us that she thought we should wait until my elderly father died before we adopted, and then she followed with the comment that we would then be too old to adopt a baby.
(2) We were very lucky on the cost. Although we were prepared to dip into our retirement if things didn't go well, the surrogacy required only ~$65K, about twice the total price of overseas adoption (i.e., the price that includes indirect costs such as travel and missed work that are additional to the direct costs usually reported). We also did not have the significant medical costs associated with in vitro and egg donation. Nor did we have the legitimate additional expenses of helping Kim with chores that I'm sure became difficult as her pregnancy progressed, as she politely refused the offer of financial reimbursement for housekeeping and other work associated with caring for her two young children.
My husband and I -- and I'm sure all of the others who also volunteered to allow Eric and Frauke into their personal lives -- think that humanely run organizations which promote alternative reproduction like the Center for Surrogate Parenting are absolutely wonderful. They fill in the huge gaps where either (1) the adoption system is broken, or (2) where a couple has a deep desire to have their own genetic child and there is no alternative.
Sincerely,
Amy Jurewicz
5/24/06
Saint Louis, MO
One aspect of this issue the film didn't touch on is selecting against embryos that have genes for mental illnesses. Think about how many of our greatest artists, writers and visionaries have had depression, bipolar disorder, alcoholism and more. (Kay Redfield Jameson's book Touched With Fire addresses the connection). Denying these people life would surely deprive our society of some of its most creative and revolutionary minds.
5/22/06
CESAR Q. DIMAL
VANCOUVER, B.C., CANADA
At first I was impress by the technical prowess of the process. It is very imformative. But when I saw the whole show, The reasons mentioned in favor of the film " frozen angels" clearly shows how myopic and narrow thinking other people can be.
Can anyone of those experts, supporters, and believers, explain to me how homo sapiens came from those other hominids? As homo sapiens, we are supposed to be the better version of those hominids. The long process of human evolution did not happened by individual choice alone but by the crucial power of nature. We cannot predict what nature does! For example, can anyone of those mention above could predict the global weather in 100 years. No one can. Nature alone probably produce the most desirable mutation. We called the force of nature as accident, because we cannot wholly explain it.
Please let us come to our senses. Who knows?, maybe in a 100,000 years from now we are still stuck as homo sapiens because some "smart or greedy" people decided to tamper with human DNA. Even worst, by then we probably reached an evolutionary dead
end.
5/22/06
Tiffany H. Cox
Des Moines, IA
A fascinating, eye-opening program, to be sure. However, my first concern is that these "perfect children" will not be what their parents expect or plan them to be. What kind of emotional stress will they face? Will they be abused or disowned when they aren't perfect? I fear for them. But what astounds me most is the tie people have to their own DNA or "the right" DNA. There are so many children in this overpopulated world already -- wonderful, beautiful children. Why don't they just adopt? They're willing to accept a child born of someone else's egg, sperm and/or womb. Is there so much difference? My husband and I adopted our daughter and we are not infertile. A number of family members had difficulty with this choice; to them, adoption was only acceptable when "the natural way" wasn't available. But we have a beautiful, healthy, smart, talented little girl whose personality is very much like the other members of this family -- even though she was born half a world away and doesn't look a thing like we do. I really think these people are incredibly... well, selfish! Think adoption first.
5/22/06
Aliso Viejo, California
I just watched "Frozen Angels" on Independent Lens that was
broadcast on KCET on Saturday, May 20, 2006.
It was extraordinarily good.
It was both thought provoking and mesmerizing.
Thank you for this fantastic production!
5/22/06
Stevens Point, Wisconsin
I am relieved that so many who have commented seem to agree with me. It makes me just a little less frightened and disgusted to live in this world. I would have used the term "mengele" to describe the modern practitioners and promoters of eugenics and designer babies, but am actually grateful that another commentor has said it first. Things have definitely taken an evil turn with these technologies; a kinder, gentler but transparently Nazi mentality pervades. Hitler's human stud farms again. Wasn't this disgusting and evil enough half a century ago? What will it take to be rid of the "master race" idea once and for all? Egg donation and surrogate gestation are inherently sexist and degrading to women, and all this "we-just-want-a-child-to-love" is insincere, nauseating, self-serving nonsense in this world where there are millions of unwanted children who need families.
5/22/06
Santhosh
Gainesville, FL
This documentary reminds of the sci-fi movie 'Gattaca'..
Some of the repurcussions of eugenics are scary.. like a company would screen candidates based on their genes alone.
Hope we can an intelligent and considerate use of eugenics in future.
5/22/06
amherst, ma
Thanks for this film.
I am a grounded person with a high IQ, strong academic credentials and mostly left of center sensibilities and I am very troubled by reprotech. It is, as portayed, freaky stuff!
I was dismayed to read one commenter's assertion that those who oppose reprotech are beholden to a sound bite culture. Those who use reprotech are beholden to the most basic, hollow soundbite of all: "This will please me. Therefore, it is good." That's a dysfunctional basis for a culture.
The use of reprotech is like building one's dream house in Yosemite Valley: it pleases the owners and their friends and family, but deprives the culture of the notion of the sacred.
Not a good exchange.
5/22/06
Tara
Did we not get rid of Hitler for the very same reasons that these people are making money from. I think this is such a sad reflection of society! Where's the love? Haven't we learned our lesson from puppy farms? I think human life means more than this! I'm totally disgusted and yes, I turned the channel and I pray to God that these people do no longer exist. I think it is such a shame that we won't use stem cell research to save people's lives but, we'll let this sick way of creating humans flourish!!!
5/22/06
Paul Hankinson
The film is truly incredible. - it's so quietly powerful this film.. there is this .. THING.. this dark murmuring flubbery thing.. underneath every scene.. this quiet.. this threat.. this potential.. it's like a constant rhythm.. it's so musically put together - even without the score which works perfectly and is never put on top of the film.. it always comes from deep inside it - even without the score it has such rhythm.. like a great symphony.. the tempo changes and the mood changes and the character changes but underneath is a constancy which ties it all together and brings it eventually to its conclusion at exactly the right moment. But even after it's over the 'thing' is still there.. it ALWAYS is..
it's such an incredible film. I was so excited to see it on the big screen and the sequences of musik and images are SO AMAZING.. the helicopter.. the planes (when that 2nd plane flies in from the top - beautiful!!) - the kids on the beach, the merging traffic (selection), the machinery, the orange sky..
the city.. everything.. is so so beautifully captured. Add to that the sensitivity with which the stories and people are handled.. the non judgement - the choices you made -it's really so beautiful and moving.. and yes terrifying too to be IN this world NOW..
the people I saw it with were REALLY affected by it. They all agreed that it was a very interesting and extremely beautifully made film.
5/22/06
Samatha St. Paul
I found the whole piece disturbing and wanting to re-vive my reading of the late great Pope John Paul 2's writings on the culture of death.
this brave new world will not be worth living in if these LA eggs heads do not stop playing GOD.
5/18/06
new brunswick, nj
Life is a commodity. Community and democracy are unsustainable in a reprotech-ed world.
5/18/06
Doug Domonkos
San Francisco, CA
This production is engaging, intense and a pleasure to watch. Not only does this work bring up endless questions, but presents the material with a sharp, artistic vision.
Particularly of interest to me, is the view into the Southern California culture and hype that surrounds this advanced industry. It is interesting to see the range of emotions and motivations of the parties involved. Also interesting, is how the filmmaker intersperses locale and industrial footage. This highlights the limitations of current and past technologies and the unsolved problems they create.
5/18/06
Young women are still being exploited when not given complete information which will be the same when the demand for eggs for stem cell research will put the call out for fertile, healthy females.
A woman's body produces a finite number of eggs in her lifetime. Between menstruation and menopause normally one egg is released each month, if not fertilized, menstruation occurs. Each time 10-15 eggs are removed from a woman at one time for donation, is a year earlier she'll go into menopause.
While hormone replacement therapies, osteoporosis medications, and beauty creams for aging skin will always be a booming industry, the bigger issue is why full disclosure of premature menopause isn't given to these women when making their decision instead of cloaking it under "future fertiliy problems may occur." When the body stops producing eggs, Menopause will occur.
The issues are complex and layered.
I have two wonderful nieces conceived via IVF. One from a family member who donated the egg which the donor said the procedure was painful. The other from an anonymous donor who needed money for higher education, but matched my sister-in-law's racial profile.
5/18/06
Melissa Hodges
Richmond VA
It is quite frightening to realize that our society may one day be able to special order its own children, that kids can be customized like cars or pizza. Instead of chrome rims and a kickin audio system, people will line up to have specialized babies with blonde hair, blue eyes, a certain IQ, and social skills. To me the customization of a child is more than just an ehtical debate, it's personal. No amount of argumentation can justify a person's need or desire to create the perfect baby. Think about what the customization of our children will do to society and to the world. Not only will it cause elitist seperation (even more than we have today in our society where the rich are on top and the poor at the bottom and very few people living happily in the middle and even a possibility of having the genetically engineered and the natural births creating a whole new kind of struggle) but it could possibly cause even greater stresses on different races or a deeper seperation between the races and if, God forbid, the technology gets into the wrong hands what Hitler did will pale in comparison to what a single team of doctors could do with baby customization.
Don't take away humanities right to choose, and don't take away our individuality, PLEASE.
5/18/06
Ethan
Richmond, Va.
The harvesting of a dead mans sperm for the purpose of having children after his death is just plain wrong. It is the moral equivalent of rape. This is steeling of the reproduction potential of a man without his consent. It would be rape of a man or woman if they had limited ability to consent due to drugs, so with death there is no ability to consent. This is also a potential threat to the manís estate, and the dispersion of that estate in accordance to his will. Of all the things I heard in this film this should be a crime for all involved.
I was also rather disturbed about donating eggs and sperm. My distaste is that I believe that is appears to me to be wrong to possibly have kids out there that you donít know about. I personally would never donate, and if I found out my girlfriend had donated she would not be my girlfriend anymore. This is because I would not want my children to have half brothers/sisters out there.
I am not opposed to eugenics for the elimination of disease, or birth defects. Other then breeding though I am cautious, because this field is still too young. We already have increased wheat allergies due accidentally allowing modified wheat to enter the food stream. I do believe though that as a member of POOP (People Offended by Offended People) and after reading Dr. Hoekstraís comments I would be supportive of the removal of genes connected to being politically correct.
5/17/06
Stephen Jurewicz
Cave Creek , AZ
Dear Viewers,
My name is Steve Jurewicz and I am the father of the little girl (Sophia) born in the film. I would like to make a few comments on ìFrozen Angelsî that I hope will provoke some thoughtful insight while viewing this film. First, let me say that I think Eric and Frauke did a splendid job; however, producers and directors are artists who create based upon their own personal insight and vision. So, I would like to highlight my view and experiences on issues not fully addressed in the film.
First, while the film heavily focuses on the perception that parents seeking a surrogate mother are looking to obtain a blonde haired, blue-eyed child. In fact, looks were never an issue when my wife and I decided to begin the search for a surrogate. Perhaps this is why there is no mention in the movie about our selection criteria. In reality, we did not select Kim as our surrogate; it was she who selected us. Having the surrogate do the selection is standard practice at the Center for Surrogate Parenting (Bill Handelís surrogate parenting group). The parents only choose if they have more than one surrogate offering help. This is probably why almost nothing is said about CSP and how they pair surrogates with hopeful parents.
Second, we told CSP that our only selection criteria was that we wanted a compassionate, kind-hearted, and loving person as a surrogate. Given that my wife and I are both PhDís, you might think that high SAT scores and a college degree would be paramount; in fact they were not. At the time Kim, was not in college and I never looked to see (and still do not know) if she had even taken the SAT. I am shown in the film making the comment that "it was an added bonus when the Surrogate was good-looking". Now you know why; good looks were never a goal. The only consideration of appearance was that my wife hoped for someone that looked vaguely similar to her.
Unfortunately, we live in a world of sound bites, hype, and trends. And this film is a victim of all three. Let me add that there are many people who search out the perfect ìchildî, but in reality, there are probably just as many who are just happy to have a child to love. While, I enjoyed working with Frauke and Eric on this film and see it as a work of cinematic art, I believe this could have been a far more powerful and thought-provoking film if the story of the individuals involved had been allowed to tell itself and not force-fit into the vision of the moment.
Sincerely,
Stephen Jurewicz
5/17/06
I was very disheartened by some of the things I saw in your documentary. It saddened me very much to hear that a person would destroy their own embryos, upon finding a genetic defect. What is wrong with people? I see life, babies as a gift from God. To throw that away seems uncontionable.
I am adopted from Italy and had no medical history. I found my birthmother about 11 years ago, 3 yesrs before I had children. I asked about family medical history etc. But having children is a risk. It turns out I carry a rare genetic disease;Hemophilia. My youngest of two children has this disease. Had I known I carried this disease before having children I don't think I would ahve done anything different. Life is a gamble, you take your risks. We can't have perfect children, a perfect life,everyone blue eyes and blond hair, everyone with superior intelligence. Will there be no end to the ways science is willing to manipulate nature?
5/17/06
Cecile Perez
Wouldn't it be wonderful: now we are able to make a child that is stronger, can live longer, has intelligent tendencies, and is better than the average, because we want the best. We want the best coffee, the best wine, the best car, the best house, or the best bed to sleep on, etc. Now we want the best child: custom made just for us. This is just another way Americans are trying to ease and improve their lives. It's scary too - let me give a definition of eugenics.
eu’-gen’-ics
Pronunciation: yu-'je-niks
: a science that deals with the improvement (as by control of human mating) of hereditary qualities of a race or breed
Now think about this: doesn't that sound, well, a little like a Hitler idea? It's scary! The fact that usually the rich and higher class people are able to afford and go through with this is what could send a shockwave through our social structure. Now rich people could possibly be superior in their genes besides other things too. Think of the separation there could be if there were the special genetically altered kids and the non-altered ones. It's a scary and troubling thought.
5/17/06
the entire program was surreal-frightening and distasteful. Those rich smug know-it all doctors/scientists...they were Mengeles! And the talk host who had a side business with surrogate mothers and egg donors..he came out like a mooney-grubber, with an "interesting and compassionate" side job that was supposingly helping childless parents fulfill their dreams. The surrogate mother had the invitro baby because her husband was away, needed the money and had nothing else to do. AND HAD NO FEELING FOR THE FETUS INSIDE HER.The egg donor was obviously proud of her blue-eyed blondness, and knew her asking price would go up in the future. I felt sickened, horrified, and even fearful for the future of all these people and the babies they were producing in one way or another.
it was like the background of movie-making-"we got to have a story, a plot, a gimmik, a star, a script, a BUDGET, a producer, a director and most importantly, publicity. With a sinking heart I watched all these self-important professional people discuss and apparently eagerly looking forward to the time when they could control all procreation. How power-hungry they all were.
5/17/06
akremly
nyc
This was one of the most amazing and most personally affecting of this series I have seen. I am lucky enough to have been adopted at close to birth. I have friends who have been egg donors, sperm donors, and those who have had natural child birth at home with a midwife. and those who have had invitro, and those who have selected cesarian.
The only common ground is that now people want to have their off- spring on thier own terms. Nearly everyone is adamant that their choice is the "right" choice. And who can argue what is right for that family? But what about the children that are born but not expected and planned on?
As and adoptee, I am always thinking of the eighteen year old who has aged out of the system. She was an unwanted pregnancy and an unwanted baby, and he was an unwanted toddler, and an unwanted preschooler at those picnics and an unwanted preteen at those' picncis an an unwanted teen- and eventually...
What does our society want to do with these children it doesn't want to terminate, and doesn't want to care for?
I appreciate the many points of view that the filmmaker tried to address. This is sucha a personal issue- it is only right as many situations and questions come to light
Thank you
5/17/06
Tom
I do not agree with reproductive cloning. Cloning for organs, yes, I agree, but cloning for genetic enhancement? Treating babies like software, to "upgrade" your babies and change "old" babies? We were taught that everybody was special. That was only because nobody stuck a tweezer into our DNA and yanked out some bits. Wouldn't it be likely that parents clamor for genius, beauty, ability, and personality? If it were that case, we could barely call children "our own". It is like bringing on a total genocide, where one species becomes so threatened by the other that they will kill to ensure that they are no longer threatened! As humans, we have the power to do that. I will bet that if we are threatened to the point of extinction, we will turn to nuclear. When we finish, we're lucky if the air is still safe to breathe.
5/17/06
Dr. Kathleen O.C. Hoekstra
Putnam Valley NY
Just watched "Frozen Angels"...an excellent production, except for the slur, "Irish drunk gene", voiced by one of the narrators. Especially since this man identified himself as Jewish, he should be more sensitive to such harmful and hurtful--and innacurate stereotypes. Does he also believe there is a gene for "cheap Jews" or "lazy Blacks"? I believe that those responsible for perpetuating the slur to which I referred have an obligation to be far more circumspect.
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