29 October, 2010 SCMP
Use of surrogacy draws Catholic diocese rebuke
Use of a surrogacy agent by Henderson Land Development’s vice- chairman Peter Lee Ka-kit is a disrespect to human dignity in an unscrupulous way, a Catholic Church official said in the first remark on the issue from the diocese.
The Catholic diocese of Hong Kong was responding to the news of three boys born to Lee, 47, the eldest son of Henderson chairman Lee Shau-kee, who had had no grandsons but two granddaughters. Henderson’s announcement, made on Tuesday, hit the front pages of several Chinese-language newspapers.
And reports about the bachelor and devout Buddhist hiring a California-based surrogacy agent sparked heated discussions.
In the first comments from the Catholic diocese, vicar-general Father Michael Yeung Ming-cheung said Lee had not respected human values. He said the basic principle of his faith was to respect human dignity, not to obtain something by hook or by crook.
“[The use of surrogate mothers] is just to make parents happy. Can [the children's] human dignity be written off? Therefore, I hold that this is not an excuse,” Yeung said.
He said people should understand there were some things in life that were out of reach, and they should learn how to cope with the situation or try to obtain what they wanted through normal means, not in an unscrupulous way.
In the use of surrogacy, the children suffered the most, he said.
“The children will have no mother to take care of them as they grow up. They will lack maternal love, which is very important,” he said, adding that the children might similarly think they could do whatever they liked as long as they had money.
Peter Lee had set a bad example to society, Yeung said. “All of us have to face up to the issue, but now it seems to be just a piece of entertainment news,” he said.
Choi Chi-sum, general secretary of the Christian concern group, the Society for Truth and Light, said Lee’s act was immoral and would be harmful to the children.
“A human individual is an independent entity and has his own dignity and value, and should never be treated as a tool for any purposes,” Choi said.
People using surrogate mothers might feel they had the right to do so, but they ignored the children’s rights, he said. He said the children would face huge stress from gossip as they grew up. Lee should protect the children from such gossip and let them grow up in a quiet environment.
