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Date: | Tue, 29 Mar 2005 07:51:38 EST |
Content-Type: | text/plain |
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After reading the article, I am struck by several thoughts and feel the need
to comment. There has been a recent spat of articles on sharing breastmilk
(USA), wet nursing (China), etc. Why? Most of the media in the USA would not be
classified as free and independent of industry/government imput. Nor would I
believe that China has a free and independent media.
All these articles state in some form that human milk is wonderful, "liquid
gold." In China this wet nursing business (run by a man or men) was stopped
due to public pressure because women were against it--did not want their
breasts sold as commodities. To be a wet nurse the company had strict guidelines,
"women were all good-looking, aged between 25-30, had passed rigorous health
tests..." After reading the article, the wet nursing business in China seemed
more like the company that was pimping breastfeeding than a service for
infants. At the end of the article the owner of the business gets a phone call from
a national women's mag asking if 20 of his "charges" would pose topless for a
cover photo. The company's name is Bang Bang. As someone who doesn't live in
China or know much about it, how can I know whether this story is true or
not? I must trust that the media is presenting a true story and that the
translation into English was accurate.
Ownership of human milk components and its gene constructs are in the hands
of multinational corporations and the US Department of Health. The purpose of
these articles is in my opinion is to sway the general population against any
private dealings in human milk. Is this for safety's sake? Is this support
of women's liberation because breasts/human milk should not be made into
commodities? Or is this discouragement of private sharing of human milk or
wet-nursing because the ownership of human milk components and the gene constructs
resides with the US Department of Health and multi-national corporations? Thus
private arrangements infringe upon the monopolies of the State and the our
multi-national corporations?
Valerie W. McClain
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