Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Children as Commodities

An incredibly depressing article cited at Monstrous Regiment of Women on women who marry for money and status, then leave their husbands for other rich men as soon as they lose their jobs.

One case mentioned in the article which has not (I think) been picked up by other commentators, is the story of the couple who paid a fortune to have identical twin boys through IVF, joking that they would have sent them back if they had been girls. In our shallow, status-obsessed world, IVF has pushed the boundaries of materialism so far that even children become commodities who can be custom-made for the right price.