Thursday, April 3, 2008

The Orwig PR Machine At Work

Clearly Newsweek has heard of the impending birth of the Orwig Twins and is trying to capitalize on the inevitable media buzz. My Mom brought over a copy of Newsweek which features a cover story on surrogacy. It's called "The Curious Lives of Surrogates."

I braced myself for another cautionary tale of Baby M, overbearing intended parents, and exploitation. It was actually a pretty good article, though. The authors didn't go for the easy scare or outrage, but did explain some possible pitfalls and controversy. I made the brief mistake of reading the comments section, but quickly got over that. You're just not likely to see thoughtful, informed opinions on a Newsweek comment section.

By the way, the article talks a lot about military wives. Geri is actually a full-time working mom of three with a Masters (MBA?) and a management position in a well known national company. The surrogate who carried Grace, however, was formerly in the Air Force as was her husband. So Grace was born at a military hospital and I believe the surrogate's military insurance covered that. All the other expenses, though (IVF, tests, etc) were out-of-pocket. So the military insurance doesn't really cover the surrogacy medical expenses and didn't cover anything not covered by a typical health insurance plan.

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