JoJo Siwa’s plan to welcome three children via three different surrogate women sparked outrage and heated debate on surrogacy ethics. The 21-year-old artist appeared in a new YouTube series for Cosmopolitan entitled “If It Were Me” on Monday (July 15), candidly answering hypothetical situations.
In the series’ segment, which amassed over 6,500 views, JoJo was asked the following question: “You and your wife are ready to have children, but she confesses that she hates the baby names you've picked out for them -- Freddy Eddie, and Teddy -- how would you respond?”
Highlights
- JoJo Siwa's plan to have three children via three surrogates sparked outrage and debate on surrogacy ethics.
- In a new YouTube series, JoJo shared her plan to fertilize three eggs and use three surrogates.
- Critics described JoJo's surrogacy plans as 'extremely irresponsible' and highlighted the ethical concerns surrounding surrogacy.
“And that is something that I talk about very early on with partners.”
JoJo Siwa’s plan to welcome three children via three different surrogate women sparked outrage
Image credits: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
She continued: “I'm like, ‘Just so you know, there are three children. Their names are Freddie, Eddie, and Teddie.’
“I will have as many more as you want, however many more, but F.E.T. is coming, and they will be here in three years, whether you like it or not.
“Those are my nuggets, and no one comes before my nuggets.”
JoJo went on to confess that as a person identifying as gay, she had to plan her pregnancy “much differently than a straight person.”
Image credits: JoJo Siwa
Lesbian couples have several options for having children, including donor insemination, where sperm from a known or anonymous donor is used to fertilize one partner's egg.
In November, Norwegian TikTokers Julie and Camilla Lorentzen welcomed their first child via this method.
People in same-gender relationships or queer families can also welcome a child via reciprocal IVF, where one partner provides the eggs and the other carries the pregnancy.
A person seeking to become a parent may also adopt a child or choose co-parenting arrangements with male friends or couples.
The 21-year-old artist appeared in a new YouTube series for Cosmopolitan entitled “If It Were Me” on Monday (July 15)
Image credits: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
Nevertheless, JoJo openly spoke about her plans to pay for surrogates, saying: “I actually want to take three eggs, fertilize three eggs, and have three surrogates, so, technically, they'll all be the same batch, but they would all be born separately.”
She further explained: “I'm going to have my surrogates, my babies, then maybe the little birthdays will land on different days, and they can be like triplets, but like not.”
The singer-dancer’s baby plans stunned a handful of viewers, as a YouTube user commented: “Freddie Eddie and Teddie in different surrogates at the same time is out of control.”
Image credits: Cosmopolitan
Someone else penned: “Surrogacy already has a high chance of multiples, so having three surrogates is extremely irresponsible.
“Not to mention, she's still perfectly capable of being pregnant with her own kids via IVF.
“I hope she's joking because she doesn't sound very informed.”
An observer defended: “She’s so funny and it goes right over [yall’s] heads.”
JoJo's surrogacy plans drew heated debate on surrogacy ethics
JoJo’s controversial pregnancy confessions were shared via the popular X page (formerly known as Twitter) Pop Base on Saturday (July 20), igniting additional divided reactions.
“When you accumulate so much wealth from selling sippy cups with your face on [them] that you purchase three women's bodies as vessels for your progeny because pain and discomfort [are] for the poors,” an X user noted.
A netizen argued: “You've been told that surrogacy is just about poor infertile heterosexual couples that want a baby.
“But it's actually [a] marketplace for designer babies that caters to the rich and entitled.”
Image credits: Cosmopolitan
A commenter added: “Rich people renting working-class women’s wombs to make kids that they will pay working-class women to raise should be banned.”
A separate individual chimed in: “After she works out her trauma from being a child star & Nickelodeon product, she’s gonna be so embarrassed by this era of her life being so public.
“I lowkey feel bad for her.”
Rebel Wilson drew similar criticism back in November 2022 when she welcomed her daughter, Royce Lillian, via surrogacy with her fiancé, Ramona Agruma.
JoJo explained that as a person identifying as gay, she had to plan her pregnancy “much differently than a straight person”
Image credits: Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty Images
At the time, Pop Base shared the baby news of the Australian actress, prompting backlash, as an X user commented: “Rich people ([Whether] they are lgbt or not) renting poor women’s uterus will never be ok.
“Stop acting like this is a normal thing.”
A surrogate, sometimes also called a gestational carrier, is a person who conceives, carries, and gives birth to a child for another person or couple (intended parent/s), Better Health Channel explains.
The surrogate agrees to give the child to that person or couple after the birth. Moreover, surrogacy arrangements are medically, emotionally, financially, and legally complex.
Image credits: JoJo Siwa
In the UK, the surrogate will automatically be the child's legal parent at birth. If the surrogate is married or in a civil partnership, their spouse or civil partner will be the child's second parent at birth unless they did not give their permission.
In Australia, all jurisdictions allow altruistic surrogacy -- the surrogate does not receive monetary compensation -- with commercial surrogacy being a criminal offense.
Commercial surrogacy -- the surrogate is paid to carry the baby or surrender them to another person -- is illegal in the European Union, as Article 3 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union states, "In the fields of medicine and biology, the following must be respected in particular: [..] (c) the prohibition on making the human body and its parts as such a source of financial gain."
While surrogacy is a popular method of conceiving biological children, many oppose it for various reasons.
You can watch JoJo's Cosmopolitan interview below:
For instance, back in April, the Pope said that surrogacy violated both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.
“How does a ‘commissioning parent’ think it feels for the birth mother to give up the baby they have gestated?” feminist campaigner against sexual violence Julie Bindel questioned in The Spectator following Rebel’s child announcement.
She continued: “The assumption is of course that the birth mother is completely detached from what is growing in her womb because she knows she’s going to have to give it away afterwards.”
As the legal framework for surrogacy varies depending on the country, flexible laws in certain nations have reportedly led to the exploitation of impoverished women, among other ethical concerns.
"All this hate to a person you all don't know," a reader commented
