The dark side of surrogacy

代孕的阴暗面

Today, Explained

2026-10-09

26 分钟
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The case of a California couple who had more than 20 kids via surrogacy before being charged with child abuse illustrates how a lack of regulation can lead to chaos. This episode was produced by Ariana Aspuru, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Gabriel Dunatov, engineered by David Tatasciore, and hosted by Noel King. A group of babies sitting on the floor. Photo by Tom Merton via Getty Images. Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. New Vox members get $20 off their membership right now. Transcript at ⁠⁠vox.com/today-explained-podcast⁠.⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  • Kayla is a mom of four from Corpus Christi.

  • A few years back, Kayla found a gig that would let her support

  • her kids and also let someone else experience the joys of parenthood, surrogacy.

  • She signed up with an agency and became a surrogate.

  • She was going to be carrying a child for a couple in California whom she'd never met,

  • but the agency sent her a profile.

  • It's kind of like dating in that world.

  • They're like smiling and the man seems to be a bit older.

  • He's in his 60s.

  • The woman is in her 30s.

  • They express that they really want to be like a lifelong friend of whoever carries a child for them.

  • That was not what happened.

  • As the baby grew inside her, Kayla started to realize something was wrong with this arrangement.

  • Eventually, she'd be plunged into a nightmare scenario with a terrifying question at its root.

  • What did this couple want?

  • And why had they asked her to carry a child for them?

  • Coming up on Today Explained from Fox, in the U.S., surrogacy is opaque and unregulated.

  • Kayla's story illustrates the peril for surrogates and for babies.

  • Support for Today Explained comes from Anthropic, the team behind Claude.

  • Anthropic is a public benefit corporation founded on a hard question.