National Post (National Edition)
‘IT’S JUST A DIFFERENT OVEN’
CBC DOCUMENTARY DELVES INTO SURROGATE PARENTING
As often happens in the hunter-gatherer stages of building a documentary film, you think it’s about one thing and it ends up being about another.
Veteran Vancouver filmmaker Nick Orchard — born in Edmonton in 1950 — thought he was making a movie about women who hire surrogate wombs in Mexico, India and Thailand because of restrictive Canadian laws. But just as those countries started closing their borders to foreigners, Orchard honed in on something even more interesting happening at home — Canadian women volunteering (as in not being paid) to give birth to other people’s babies.
Edited together from more than two years of footage, the 50-minute documentary Having Our Baby: The Surrogacy Boom (which aired on CBC Documentary Channel on Tuesday) is a truly fascinating look at the women and families who come together in these unique relationships. The film opens on Edmonton’s Heather Chaput at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, suffering from pre-eclampsia — a condition including high blood pressure — which is forcing the birth to May instead of June or July.
It’s tense, yet it’s actually Sarah and Jason Geisler’s baby inside her. Jason explains to their other children, “It’s just a different oven.”
After a car accident, Sarah could no long have children, and the two are in awe of Chaput’s sacrifice. “You’re volunteering,” Jason begins, Sarah finishing, “your whole life.” She describes connecting with Chaput. “It’s a little bit like online dating. You try and read someone’s profile and decide if they’re normal enough that you could stand to be around them for a couple of years.
“You don’t want too much crazy in there,” she laughs.
While the film explores the history of surrogate mothers, including the world’s first testtube baby (Louise Brown, born in 1978), the narrative couldn’t be more in the now. It shows the most modern hospital technology as seen from the end of selfie sticks and takes us through the process of “the two Phils” of Montreal meeting their baby. Phil Malo and Phil Robert used a surrogate mother, Eilise Marten of Woodstock, Ont., whom they met through an agency.
It discusses wrestled-over Canada’s laws, which allow no financial compensation for surrogacy beyond expenses. University of Ottawa associate professor Vida Panitch notes the hypocrisy of ongoing arguments of potential exploitation. “They call it labour for a reason,” she says.
It’s a truly fascinating hour of television, made by a producerdirector whose resume includes respectable stints as production manager on The Beachcombers and associate producer on the highest-rated British show in history, Eastenders.
Calling himself a storyteller before a journalist, Orchard discusses the issues.
Q How did you first become interested in this issue of surrogacy? A I read magazines, newspaper articles and just look for stories that jump out at me. I really knew nothing about it. What floored me is there are so many women willing to become surrogates, essentially for a stranger.
Q Was access much of an issue? People are letting you into the most important moment of their lives here. A We put feelers out and we had people coming to us who were wanting to share their story. Eilise, the one at the end who had the baby for the two Phils, she was pleading with me to tell their story. It was too good a story to pass up, so I went to CBC and said, “Do you mind if I deliver a bit later?” and they said, “Go for it.” I think the main thing is they want to get the word out about surrogacy and how you can do something good. Can you imagine?
Q She says she helped create a family, it was really touching. Can you talk about the legal issues, what’s legal and what’s not in Canada right now surrounding surrogacy — is it just the idea of being paid to carry, and/or provide the raw material of life? A You can only be paid to cover your expenses. That can be about $20,000, but you’re basically taking a year of your life. If you go to the States, you can add another $30,000 to $50,000 to pay a surrogate.
Q Can you outline how crossing borders for surrogacy is controversial? A We were looking at the issue of, is it right that rich Canadian women come into a country and exploit, if you will, poor Indian women? I was under the opinion it was a win-win situation. It may not look good on paper, but the surrogates can get quite a new life — buy a place of their own, put their child through school. I was more sympathetic than the documentary says, because I left in people talking about the exploitation. In those two years it went from people being outsourced to now people coming to Canada. If you are forced to pay a U.S. surrogate, of course you’d want to come to Canada, where essentially they’re free. You only pay expenses — and what do you know, their health-care costs are covered, as well!
Q This will set off alarm bells.
A I do know some provincial governments are having a look at this to have foreign-intended parents to pay medical costs.
Q Can you talk about how you found a balance in making this film — while at the same time wanting to get a point across. A I would always wish to show there’s more than one side on an issue. You have to find a way to include diverse opinions.
Q If you showed this to someone in the ’50s, this would be pure science fiction.
A: There’s even some talk of artificial wombs. You’ve solved the problem for some moralists.
Q And then we’ll just be replaced by robots and that’ll finally be that! A: (Laughs.) There you have it.