Essay: Baby M. - Emotions for Sale

Regardless of what the judge may decide this week in the Baby M. surrogate- mother trial in New Jersey, the case bequeaths a straightforward question that ought to be answered before the next such trial proves necessary: Are there any ethical limits on what one person may pay another to do? It is a question that rarely arises in the world of normal commerce, even in the modern service economy (of which the contract drawn between William Stern and Mary Beth Whitehead for her to bear his baby may stand as the oddest example). Problems of conscience do not crop up...