“Baby Factory” Spurs Controversy in Poland

A controversy has erupted in Poland over the opening of a "baby factory" in Warsaw. Nurse Elizhbeta Shimanskaya, who is 32, is charging parents the equivalent of about $21,000 for a surrogate mother to bear their babies. Parents must adopt the child birthed by one of the 37 surrogate mothers housed at the home no matter what its medical condition.

Most Poles support the issue, but its faced vocal opposition from the Catholic Church, which is very powerful in Poland. 

I'd like to know what the surrogates are getting paid.  If it's all are most of the fees the parents are paying, then I don't consider it all that exploitive. But if all they are getting out of it is three hots and a cot and a nominal fee, well, that doesn't sit well.

About 1.5 million couples in Poland are struggling to conceive and this "baby factory" could allow them to become parents. As such, I just don’t understand the church' opposition to this (and all ART, really, but that's another post). If having children is important enough to be included in the Catholic marriage ceremony (one of the vows is to accept children gladly) then why not broaden people's opportunities to do just that?

And while I certainly understand concerns that the surrogate mothers could be exploited, treated only like a rent-a-womb, the story doesn't tell me enough about whether or not that's the case (or whether that in fact is at the root of the church's opposition – but as a Catholic who underwent fertility treatment, somehow I think not).