TV REVIEWS : ‘Truth’ Warns About Surrogacy

Based on real events, “Moment of Truth: A Child Too Many” (at 9 tonight on NBC, Channels 4, 36 and 39) brings into focus some of the injustices that can result from commercial surrogate pregnancies.

The two-hour drama reveals the problems that develop when a surrogate, Patty Nowakowski (Michele Greene), discovers she’s carrying twins. Although the couple who hire the Michigan housewife initially appear to be loving and generous, they turn out to be quite coldhearted after they learn that an additional baby is on the way. Not only do Bill (Stephen Macht) and Sharon (Nancy Stafford) reject the idea of raising twins, but this well-heeled couple reveal that they will put both babies up for adoption unless one of them is the girl they covet.

“A Child Too Many” effectively exposes commercial surrogacy as a sometimes immoral enterprise where the welfare of a child can take a back seat to the almighty dollar. In this movie, potential surrogate mothers are tested and scrutinized by an agency while genetic parents go unquestioned as long as they’ve got enough money in the bank.

A generally well acted and smoothly crafted work, “A Child Too Many” is credible enough as a dramatic examination of a controversial social issue. Still, it’s no threat to achieve TV movie immortality. Since this project was made with the cooperation of Nowakowski, she and her family come across as one of the most perfect--and perfectly bland--American households you’re likely to find on prime-time TV.

And though Nowakowski does act heroically in an effort to keep the twins together, the movie tries too hard to aggrandize her.