Editorial by School of Vice:
Believe it or not "culture" determines most aspects of human behaviour, and in this disturbing, morally sordid instance, the notion that man can supplant "God's" role [natural biological reproductive process] in service of his [man's] quest for happiness. This arrogance belongs in the category of ethically adventurous, experimental "rationalist culture" and or western materialism which views and exploits science as utilitarian instrument with which to push the boundaries of the fulfillment of human desires, overcoming human defects and short-comings without care as to ethics or moral aberration.
Such instances by no means negate or disgrace mainstream western materialism and the scientific "culture" per se since there is much rendered by this culture at large that is beneficial to mankind. Nevertheless, we could see that this Tree of human knowledge does not always yield wholesome fruits that man can morally and safely consume and digest! From this aberration in western outlook and 'culture' - as typified by Nietzsche's 'Will to Power' gospel and the like - we have witnessed gas chambers and concentration camps in Europe, the birth and proliferation of nuclear arsenals, "social engineering" in Democratic Kampuchea in the 1970s as inspired by crude and strict adherence to rudiments in Marxian thought, which itself is but another by-product of European Enlightenment or the 'Age of Reason' - and yes, of a particular "culture".
If some foreigners decry what they perceive as general oppression of Khmer women and in, particular, the latter's "sexual freedom" or lack thereof, through 'culture', it is as well to be reminded that these foreigners or their like-minded and converted Cambodian fellows are themselves espousing a particular view-point that is deeply rooted in 'culture', be it 'feminism' or 'libertarianism'. Linking cultural repression of 'human sexuality' to violence is somewhat disingenuous or deterministic at best, and there have been a number of writers before them who attributed the horrors of the Khmer Rouge to the same perceived repression of the Cambodian psyche at the hand of Khmer 'culture'! What would the Chinese envoy Zhou Da-Koun who visited the Angkor kingdom in its heyday and noted the unusual sexual freedom enjoyed by Khmer women at the time have made of Khmer women and their cited sexual oppression today, eh? Or that these women are biologically responsible for having given birth to Pol Pot and his murderous Khmer Rouge hordes?
'Rationality' does not necessarily lead to humanity. Compassion balanced with wisdom does.
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Bopha, a surrogate mother for a Dutch couple, pictured in Kampong Speu province earlier this month. Heng Chivoan
Fri, 20 January 2017
Cristina Maza and Kong Meta
ppp
Commercial surrogacy agency New Life Global Network has severed ties with Dutch intended parents Johan and Pieter* after the Post reported on their experience with a Cambodian surrogate mother.
New Life claims the couple broke their contract’s confidentiality clause by passing reporters information about their correspondence with the agency.
“New Life Global Network LLP unilaterally terminates the agreement with the immediate effect. Along with that let me inform you that, translators refused to communicate with you and your surrogate mother, as well as hospitals refuse to provide you with pregnancy care and delivery service,” reads an email from New Life seen by the Post.
The original story described how the couple located their surrogate mother after the agency refused to put them in touch with her, and what the couple felt were increasingly suspicious communications with the agency after Cambodia’s Ministry of Health issued a prakas banning the industry in October.
Cambodia does not have a law regulating commercial surrogacy, but the government has said it plans to draft a law banning it this year. The article cited emails from New Life demonstrating the agency was actively hiding its work in the Kingdom in the wake of the prakas.
The couple’s contract with the agency, which was drawn up in Tbilisi, Georgia, last May, states that any information submitted by the parties to each other cannot be transferred to a third party without prior consent.
“They are just out from the whole thing,” said Pieter. “But either way they weren’t doing anything [to help us], so it doesn’t really change much.”
The couple claims the agency misled them about the legality of surrogacy in Cambodia.
Their surrogate confirmed she was contacted by New Life and informed that the agency would no longer speak with her or provide scheduled checkups.
“I’m very worried now, because they said that they won’t let Central Hospital treat me,” she said, referring to the hospital where she had been getting her scans.
Johan and Pieter, however, said that they will cover all of the mother’s expenses.
New Life founder Mariam Kukunashvili said in an email she saw nothing wrong with pulling the plug on the agreement. “According to Dutch couple previous interview, they, as well as their Surrogate, claimed, that they were abandonded by us long ago. So what is worrying them now I dont understand.”
She went on to say New Life had stopped offering surrogacy services, and that Johan and Pieter had left the agency with no way to help them thanks to their “manipulative” ways.
*Names have been changed to protect the couple’s identity.
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