World News

39032 readers

3226 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]

Recommendations

How to spot Misinformation and Propaganda

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

‘Inhumane and wicked’: anguish over Italy’s expanded surrogacy ban (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

13 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Most who seek surrogacy overseas, which is now punishable by jail terms and fines, are heterosexual couples

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

You’re paying some impoverished exploited person to destroy her body giving birth so you can take away her baby… in a world on the verge of resource collapse with 8 billion humans boiling alive and countless orphans, the rich have found yet another scheme to make things worse.

EDIT: medically illiterate morons in this thread arguing that giving birth should be commodified. Fuck. You.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

What do you think about "altruistic surrogacy", mentioned in the article? Presumably if someone is volunteering that avoids the exploitation angle?

Approaching from another angle, do you think sex work should be legal? It's another area where exploitation and abuse are a concern. But if we expect someone can earn money using their body in one area (sex work, or even just physical labor) then why should it be illegal to earn money by carrying a baby to term? Exploitation should be made illegal, not the act itself.

Lastly, my understanding is that surrogacy is more often used when a woman is unable to carry the baby, than when a man is unable to impregnate.

I hear you that rich people are selfish and causing any number of problems. That said, I think your approach misses the suffering of many normal people who want to raise a child and would be unable to otherwise.

Even if this was an activity that someone thinks should be restricted, should it be punishable with jail time? I don't think so. The law in Italy seems clearly designed to target LGBT people.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Volunteering is fine, paying is not. There’s consensus in the philosophical literature that commodified surrogacy is immoral.

People use their bodies for work, true. The difference when it comes to giving birth is that

each birth shortens a woman’s lifespan by 2 to 4 (let me know if you want links to the medical research).
giving birth is the most intense endocrinological process in the animal kingdom and can be psychologically scarring, especially if you need to give up your baby.
there’s no good reason to do it. When you hire someone to work with their body (for instance, construction) we consider the risks associated with that work and weigh them against the need for that work to get done (its utility). Is there an alternative? Is it really worth it? How much would people get hurt? What’s the possibility for exploitation? Simply put, whereas many types of physical labor have to get done and aren’t all that harmful, we tend to make illegal the ones that don’t need to get done or which are harmful. For instance, we don’t look kindly on mining for radioactive material without protective equipment. We have OSHA, we don’t allow you to be paid to chop off your own body parts for someone else’s amusement, etc.
it’s dangerous! In the United States donating a kidney — yes, having a kidney cut out of your body — is safer in the long (and short) term than giving birth. If we allowed surrogacy, we would have to allow organ selling, which is technically safer. That’s the death knell of civilized society. Political arguments will be, “why should we help the poor when they can sell their organs or do surrogacy.”

Regarding sex work, you’re right; it’s so profitable and ubiquitous that making it illegal creates a black market, which is one of the main sources of harm for that industry; legalizing and regulating it makes it less exploitative and dangerous. The opposite is true for surrogacy, which is neither ubiquitous nor profitable (hence the exploitation of poor foreign girls).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I think it's a strange position to take that giving birth is like handling radioactive material.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Yes, giving birth is a major medical event, one that is quantifiably more harmful than losing a kidney. Is this news to you? Are you a moron or a psychopath?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You're being rude for no reason

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago

Your stupidity offends me.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You raise some good points in here and down below. I'm wondering if people have to go through all the trouble to have someone else conceive a child, why not just adopt? No one has to risk their health and you'd be giving a child a (hopefully) better life.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

If people cared about children, they would adopt, but they are selfish and have an obsession with passing on their own shitty genes.