April 26, 2024

Bioethics and the 2012 election: Romney’s surrogate grandsons

Mitt Romney’s eldest son Tagg now has three children born from a surrogate mother.

Entering national politics is a bit like strip mining the family farm. As soon as you’ve sold your soul, the earthmovers get to work excavating your family’s life story. This week, for instance, two of Barack Obama’s old flames popped up in a tell-all biography to be released next month. And yesterday it emerged that Mitt Romney’s new twin grandchildren were born with the help of a surrogate mother.

His oldest son Tagg now has six children, three of whom have the same surrogate mother. Tagg and his wife Jen are the biological parents. He posted the news on Facebook:

“A special thanks to our gestational surrogate who made this possible for us. Life truly is a miracle, and we feel so blessed to be able to celebrate the arrival of these precious boys into our family. For those keeping score at home, these are grandchildren numbers 17 and 18 for my parents.”

According to Romney biographer Ronald B. Scott, three of Mitt Romney’s sons have resorted to IVF to create their families. The Republican presidential candidate is opposed to abortion, Plan B contraception and embryonic stem cell research, but has never clarified his views on IVF. ~ NY Times, May 4 

Michael Cook
https://www.bioedge.org/images/2008images/taggromney.png
2012 US election
IVF
surrogacy