Oprah featured infertility stories today.

Okay, I never watch TV anymore, and I definitely don't watch Oprah. She often has good topics, but I find her a bit on the irritating side.

However, I happened to turn it on today, just as the show was starting: Lisa Ling Investigates: Wombs for Rent.

The first half of the show focussed on a couple's journey to India to find a surrogate mother, and they emphasized how the lives of the surrogates are changed as a result. Second half is about Martha Stewart's daughter's infertility treatments; another IVF couple was featured briefly.

As touched as I was by the first segment, I still have deep concerns about the commodification of babies. Essentially, it's as though the Western world is beginning to outsource baby-making. I'm glad that infertile Western couples' money has such a positive effect in the lives of impoverished Indian women; however, I ache for those women because they have to make such a private part of themselves so very public, for money. It is a different way of selling your body.

I do not intend this in any way as a judgement against the Indian women we saw in the show: I admire them, actually, for going to such drastic lengths for the well-being of their families. However, I still wonder about the ethics of the whole thing. Is it okay to use those women in that way, even if they say that they are willing participants, because most of us have more money than they do?

I don't have a firm opinion, one way or the other. (I mean, now I'm even considering doing the same thing. Would I go that far? I don't know! Maybe.) These were just the thoughts that were running through my head as I watched the show.