Tales of Natural and Unnatural Catastrophes by Highsmith Patricia

Author:Highsmith, Patricia [Highsmith, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Perseus Books Group
Published: 2011-11-08T06:00:00+00:00

Rent-a-Womb vs. the Mighty Right

Alicia Newton had never given much thought to the subject of surrogate mothers, until the Sunday her parents told her that the Reverend Townsend had based his sermon on it. This was at their Sunday midday meal, after her parents had come home from church.

“He even mentioned Frick Medical Center,” said Alicia’s mother. “Didn’t you tell me that Geoff had done a few of these operations, Alicia?”

Dr. Geoffrey Robinson, Alicia’s fiancé, was an obstetrician at Frick Medical Center.

“I’m sure Geoff ’s done some,” Alicia replied. “But his main work is deliveries and some pre-natal—”

“Townsend was saying the surrogate mother business is becoming a racket. To make money,” said her father, carving more pork roast.

Alicia supposed that Townsend had quoted something from the Old Testament about the wrongness of interfering with nature. “It’s not particularly profitable for Frick, as far as I know. It’s such a short procedure, taking the egg out under a local.”

“Profitable for the surrogate mothers,” Alicia’s mother said. “How’re they recruited, dear?”

Alicia paused, puzzled. “They’re not recruited, Mommie, they volunteer. Lots of young women need the money, true, but it’s just a normal fee plus some maintenance, I think.”

“Normal fee? Ten thousand dollars and up?” said her father.

“I don’t think there’s a fixed rate. It’s by private contract,” said Alicia. “But the point is, a surrogate mother is for couples who can’t have a baby. If the wife is infertile or keeps miscarrying, for instance.”

After a few murmurings from her parents, the subject was dropped, but the atmosphere remained a bit stiff, Alicia felt. Her parents had always been conservative, and in the last couple of years more so, in Alicia’s opinion, maybe because of the new conservatism in Meadsville’s churches (the town had more churches than schools), and what the Mighty Right was putting out via TV and radio. The Mighty Right was headed by the Reverend Jimmy Birdshall, and had its own TV and radio stations and publishing houses that printed fundamentalist magazines. The TV and radio stations asked for donations from the public and got them, so Birdshall had the money to support right-wing candidates running for all kinds of offices, from representatives in Congress to Attorney General. This bolstered the conservative President and had already led to conservatives being appointed to the Supreme Court. Birdshall—called Birdshit by his opponents—could shout his fundamentalism everywhere in America, because of his money.

Alicia’s father David Newton was in the real estate business and had to keep on the good side of everybody, so he and her mother now went to church every Sunday, as did nearly everybody else in town. Her mother was active in local welfare societies and women’s clubs dedicated to good causes. Alicia had been encouraged to “do something for the public good,” so she had taken up nursing in the middle of university years, finished an arduous course, and now at twenty-two was employed at Frick Medical Center on the edge of town. There she had met Geoff whom she adored, and they intended to marry in a few months.

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