Professor Suggests Brain Dead Women Should Be Used As Surrogates

A Norwegian professor has provoked a significant backlash online after advocating that men and women be kept "alive" and used as "whole body gestational" surrogates, according to a report in the Journal of Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics.

Professor Anna Smajdor proposed that "brain dead women" might have their bodies used for surrogate pregnancies to assist women who are unable to carry a baby of their own. At the University of Oslo in Norway, Smajdor teaches practical philosophy.

The suggestion appeared in a piece by the Colombian Medical College that discussed a study on whole-body gestational donation (WBGD). WBGD involves women who have consented in advance to being used as prospective surrogate mothers after being deemed clinically brain dead, according to a Telegraph UK report.

As you might have guessed by now, the suggestion drew strong opposition, resulting in an apology from Colombia's medical association.

Brain Dead Women Used As Surrogates- Professor

According to the report, "whole body gestational donation offers an alternative means of gestation for prospective parents who wish to have children but cannot or prefer not to gestate." The associate professor made the case that WBGD might one day be a common method of having children because it poses no health risks to the future mother. In these circumstances, she continued, there is no moral distinction between surrogacy and organ donation.

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Samajdor stated in the paper that "states and health services should adapt their policies and procedures to allow for WBGD among other donation options." However, many online users did not agree with the suggestions, and Colombian

Congresswoman Jennifer Pedraza criticised them as being misogynistic. Women have rights, she said, "even though some people forget this. Women are not utensils to be thrown away after use."

"Do we really live in a time where I have to state, as a cis woman, that, in the event that I am ever declared brain dead, I do not support, consent to, or want my body to be used as a surrogate to carry out pregnancy procedures? Denying my humanity and use of me as a host? Strongly no!" said another person.