DM Berlin: The German government should legalise commercial surrogacy

INTRODUCTION Commercial surrogacy is when a woman gets pregnant with another person’s child in exchange for payment from the child’s genetic parents. This is often because the wanting parents are biologically incapable of safely gestating a child themselves. But, in many cases, time-starved, wealthy individuals choose to have a surrogate rather than putting life on …

May 2023

The UK Government Should Legalise Commercial Surrogacy

INTRODUCTION Commercial surrogacy is when a woman gets pregnant with another person’s child in exchange for payment from the child’s genetic parents. This is often because the wanting parents are biologically incapable of safely gestating a child themselves. But, in many cases, time-starved, wealthy individuals choose to have a surrogate rather than putting life on …

February 2023 February 2023 February 2023

Billionaires owning media companies is bad for democracy

INTRODUCTION Since Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in October 2022, further fuel has been added to the debate over the influence of rich media owners on democracy. A self-described ‘free-speech absolutist’, Musk has promised to protect the ‘de facto public town square’ [Ref: Guardian] that Twitter has become. Some have argued this helps support democracy, …

revised: January 2022 Revised: November 2022 Revised: November 2022

Unhealthy lifestyles are not the business of government

Author: Tom Collyer INTRODUCTION Since the Covid pandemic, the battle against obesity and unhealthy lifestyles has been more ferocious than ever. Lifestyle factors were found to have a huge influence over how vulnerable people are to hospitalisation and death if infected with Covid-19 [Ref: Office for National Statistics], and after his own brush with death, …

Revised: November 2022 updated November 2022

Social egg freezing empowers women

INTRODUCTION The issue of social egg freezing has increasingly appeared in the news over the past decade as technological advances, celebrity endorsement and corporate cooperation make the procedure more widely known and available. Friends star Jennifer Aniston made headlines in late 2022 for confessing that she wished she had been told to freeze her eggs …