A Difficult Conversation About Surrogacy, IVF, and Parenthood

A Difficult Conversation About Surrogacy, IVF, and Parenthood

From The Winston Marshall Show by Winston Marshall

April 21, 2026 · 1h 16m

About this episode

Winston Marshall discusses surrogacy, IVF, and the rights of children with activist Katie Faust.

In this episode of The Winston Marshall Show, I sit down with children’s rights activist and author Katie Faust to explore one of the most contentious debates of our time: what do children actually need to thrive? Faust argues that modern conversations around family, marriage, and reproduction have become overwhelmingly focused on adult desires while the rights and wellbeing of children are increasingly ignored. Drawing on years of work with families and young people, she makes the case that children are uniquely shaped by their biological mother and father, and that removing either comes with real, measurable consequences. We examine the impact of divorce, fatherlessness, and non-traditional family structures, including same-sex parenting, surrogacy, and sperm and egg donation. Faust outlines her “children’s rights” framework, arguing that identity, safety, and stability are deeply connected to biological parenthood and that modern family law has flattened those distinctions. The conversation also tackles the ethics of IVF and surrogacy, including the commodification of reproduction, the separation of biological and birth parents, and the long-term psychological effects on…

People in this episode

Host: Winston Marshall

Guest: Katie Faust

Topics covered

  • surrogacy
  • IVF
  • parenthood
  • children's rights
  • family structures
  • ethics

Keywords

  • surrogacy
  • IVF
  • parenthood
  • children's rights
  • family law
  • biological parenthood
  • ethics

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: children’s rights

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