Mary Beth Whitehead’s Role--After Baby M

This woman is an emotional 5-year-old. She volunteered to become a surrogate mother because she wanted someone to admire her. She took little Melissa because she wanted that cute little baby. She put the child through the publicity of a court trial because she wanted attention. She co-wrote a book that will follow her daughter through her life because she wanted the money and publicity. She became pregnant by Gould because she wanted another baby.

Her words condemn her as a self-centered vindictive child. She imagines Melissa saying to Stern, at some future time, “How could you have done that to my mother?” She talks about how “I” was treated, what people think of “me,” how the Sterns will have a “little Mary Beth growing up in their home.”

Society can’t prevent immature women from having children, but perhaps Mary Beth Whitehead-Gould has taught us that women who are accepted into surrogate mother programs must be very carefully screened for emotional and mental stability.

DIANE SILVER

Arleta