{"id":34885,"date":"2021-11-21T12:20:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-21T17:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=34885"},"modified":"2021-11-15T12:05:48","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T17:05:48","slug":"manufacturing-a-u-s-citizen-in-9-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/21\/manufacturing-a-u-s-citizen-in-9-months\/","title":{"rendered":"Manufacturing a U.S. citizen in 9 months"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The phenomenon of anchor babies<\/a> merits a Wikipedia page: “a child born to a non-citizen mother in a country that has birthright citizenship which will therefore help the mother and other family members gain legal residency.” The term itself is hateful, according to the New York Times, and therefore used by haters such as Donald Trump (a 2015 article<\/a>). Whatever these new U.S. citizens are called, it is popularly believed that the pregnant mom has to travel to the U.S., thus limiting production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Would it be possible to produce an anchor baby remotely? The answer turns out to be “yes”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While chatting recently with a European friend, I learned that many of the things that we cherish are illegal in Europe. Abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy, for example, is generally illegal in Germany<\/a>. Surrogacy is illegal almost everywhere in Europe, but it is not illegal to write a check to the U.S. industrial-reproductive complex and produce a baby via surrogacy here in the U.S. The resulting birthright U.S. citizen will have European genetic parents and be entitled to a U.S. passport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A combination of a 19th century rule regarding former slaves and 21st century reproductive technology!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related (mostly showing that I am late to learn about this!):<\/p>\n\n\n\n