52. Surrogacy: Liberation or Exploitation? with Jennifer Lahl

In recent years, surrogacy has become a staple in the medical field with little regard or thought of the impact surrogacy has on the human reproductive and evolutionary process. This week, I am joined by Registered Nurse Jennifer Lahl in a conversation about the lesser known tribulations that surrogate mothers face in contemporary society including health risks, contractual exploitation, and family breakage. Jennifer Lahl has been studying surrogacy for over 15 years and has assisted in the production of nearly as many films surrounding this highly contentious topic. Join us in our exploration of what surrogacy’s greater impacts are on the human race’s reproductive and evolutionary process.

Jennifer Lahl, MA, BSN, RN is founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. Lahl couples her 25 years of experience as a pediatric critical care nurse, a hospital administrator, and a senior-level nursing manager with a deep passion to speak for those who have no voice. Lahl’s writings have appeared in various publications including Cambridge University Press, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and the American Journal of Bioethics. As a field expert, she is routinely interviewed on radio and television including ABC, CBS, PBS, and NPR. She is also called upon to speak alongside lawmakers and members of the scientific community, even being invited to speak to members of the European Parliament in Brussels to address issues of egg trafficking; she has three times addressed the United Nations during the Commission on the Status of Women on egg and womb trafficking.

In 2009, Lahl was associate producer of the documentary film Lines That Divide: The Great Stem Cell Debate, which was an official selection of the 2010 California Independent Film Festival. In 2010, she made her writing and directing debut producing the documentary film Eggsploitation, which has been awarded Best Documentary by the California Independent Film Festival and has sold in more than 30 countries. An updated and expanded version of Eggsploitation was released in the fall of 2013. She is also Director, Executive Producer, and co-writer of Anonymous Father’s Day (2011), a documentary film exploring the stories of women and men who were created by anonymous sperm donation. In 2014 she completed what is now a trilogy of films on the ethics of third-party reproduction with Breeders: A Subclass of Women?, which focuses on surrogacy. In July 2015, she released a documentary short Maggie's Story, which follows one woman’s egg donation journey. Compassion and Choice: Denied (2016) is a short documentary on physician assisted suicide. Lahl’s next feature film, #BigFertility was released in the fall of 2018. Her most recent film, Trans Mission: What’s the Rush to Reassign Gender? was just released in June of 2021. Always using film as a way to communicate and educate, her forthcoming film,  The Detransition Diaries: Saving Our Sisters, is set to release Fall 2022. All of her films are available for FREE streaming on The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network's YouTube channel. You can follow Jennifer and her work on Twitter @jenniferlahl or on the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network website, here.

In this episode, I mentioned previously aired episodes with Amy Sousa:

9. Amy Sousa Emotional Empowerment Through Embodied Awareness  

I also mentioned Jonathan Haidt’s Book, The Righteous Mind and Jennifer Lahl’s recent book, Broken Bonds: Surrogate Mothers Speak Out,which you can find by following these Amazon affiliate links or in my bookshop. Either way, your purchase supports the show. Thank you!

Join Jennifer and I in person for a showing of both Affirmation Generation and The Detransition Diaries in Austin Texas on April 21, following a conference hosted by Partners for Ethical Care April 20! Please visit the Partners for Ethical Care event page here for more information. To register for the free film showing on April 21, register to affirmationdocumentary@gmail.com.

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Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.

Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.

Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration.

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