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A venture capitalist goes to extremes to punish her surrogate

wired.com

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Re: A venture capitalist goes to extremes to punish her surrogate

#11

Post by FireBeyond »

I've made plenty of remarks already but this got me:

> [Bi's husband] blamed the hospital, not Smith, but told me that the litigation is “her grieving process.” He tried to stay out of the legal stuff so that Bi couldn’t blame him too.

How utterly fucking sociopathic do you have to be to sue (and not just sue, she's angling to try to have the surrogate charged with murder) as part of your grieving process. Fuck the single mom trying to help you, you don't care, as a multimillionaire VC.

Even her husband is scared, to the point he's on record as saying he doesn't want his wife blaming him for the surrogacy loss? There are a multitude of issues here.

> Next, Bi iMessaged a photo of Leon’s corpse to Smith’s 7-year-old son’s iPad.

Oh, this kind of fucking sociopath.

> Bi isn’t anti-surrogacy—in fact, she frequently advises other investors who are pursuing it and sends me links to startup after startup

Coming up next, the next unicorn, funded by this VC to help control every moment of your surrogate's life.

This is a really good read on this story: https://www.fridaythings.com/recent-posts/wired-surrogacy-ci...

> The couple hired a second surrogate to carry a fetus for them, this one a girl who’s now 11 months old. Bi characterized that pregnancy as easy and smooth to Nietfeld. In fact, the surrogate, Chelsea Sanabria, had gestational diabetes and both placenta previa and placenta accreta. During delivery, she hemorrhaged, losing 5.4 litres of blood. She needed an emergency hysterectomy to literally save her life. Imagine how little you have to care about another person to characterize that as ‘easy.’

Re: A venture capitalist goes to extremes to punish her surrogate

#12

Post by bigbadfeline »

tuckerman wrote: post #10
bigbadfeline wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> how much control does someone typically have over a surrogate during the pregnancy? The original article makes it clear: The product is fully controlled all the way to "The Island" [1] And that is achieved not by direct legislation but by the lack of it . That lack is filled by contract law and an expensive, convoluted legal system which puts the surrogates in a precariously vulnerable position. >> tuckerman: Very…

> That means, if something goes wrong the surrogates are stuck with med bills too, in addition to the legal ones. This is not true. Our contract, which was extremely standard, made us assume all medical expenses related to the pregnancy, including any complications that could have occurred afterwards. If anything happened to her health insurance coverage we would have also had to pay for premiums for new coverage.

Good for you, but not all contracts are like that, as is the case in the orig article. I'm not concerned about individual cases but about systemic risks.

Re: A venture capitalist goes to extremes to punish her surrogate

#14

Post by tuckerman »

bigbadfeline wrote: post #12
tuckerman wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That means, if something goes wrong the surrogates are stuck with med bills too, in addition to the legal ones. This is not true. Our contract, which was extremely standard, made us assume all medical expenses related to the pregnancy, including any complications that could have occurred afterwards. If anything happened to her health insurance coverage we would have also had to pay for premiums for new coverage.

Good for you, but not all contracts are like that, as is the case in the orig article. I'm not concerned about individual cases but about systemic risks.

The original comment asked what is typical, I am commenting what is typical.

What you describe would be extremely atypical and I can’t imagine any lawyer representing a surrogate would allow that to stand. It’s also nearly universal for IPs to cover legal fees for the surrogate to have an independent representation.

California, as an example, has laws mandating that IPs and Surrogates have separate attorneys for the process. I think most supporters of surrogacy would approve of common sense laws like that everywhere but even without them it’s very standard.

Re: A venture capitalist goes to extremes to punish her surrogate

#16

Post by bigbadfeline »

tuckerman wrote: post #14
bigbadfeline wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good for you, but not all contracts are like that, as is the case in the orig article. I'm not concerned about individual cases but about systemic risks.

The original comment asked what is typical, I am commenting what is typical. What you describe would be extremely atypical and I can’t imagine any lawyer representing a surrogate would allow that to stand. It’s also nearly universal for IPs to cover legal fees for the surrogate to have an independent representation. California, as an example, has laws mandating that IPs and Surrogates have separate attorneys for the…

> What you describe would be extremely atypical

Well, we're commenting on an article describing such a case and there's no study telling us that it's atypical.

> I can’t imagine any lawyer representing a surrogate would allow that to stand.

Well, I can and I'd rather nor leave it to the imagination.

I understand surrogate clients, but many of them don't seem to understand that taking a narrow, egoistical view and wanting all options available to them actually limits the pool of willing surrogates. One of the many cases where greed works against itself and needs correcting nudges from the law.

Re: A venture capitalist goes to extremes to punish her surrogate

#17

Post by saxelsen »

TrackerFF wrote: post #4

So I read the whole story...this Bi character sounds like every bad Silicon Valley yuppie stereotype rolled into one, with a big dose of legit mental illness. The lady sounded extremely manic. Don't know if it is just rage bait, but sure worked that way.

This story sounds like the worst consequence of American liberalism and capitalism in one.

This would be a hit TV show on par with Baby Reindeer, if it was ever televised.

Re: A venture capitalist goes to extremes to punish her surrogate

#18

Post by Nevermark »

quickthrowman wrote: post #8
TrackerFF wrote: post #4

So I read the whole story...this Bi character sounds like every bad Silicon Valley yuppie stereotype rolled into one, with a big dose of legit mental illness. The lady sounded extremely manic. Don't know if it is just rage bait, but sure worked that way.

It’s an interesting tale of what happens when you have enough wealth to insulate you from the insane decisions that a manic episode can generate. An ‘average’ person pursuing this sort of harassment campaign would end up institutionalized, at least temporarily. They would at least have someone tell them straight up that they need help, something this woman has probably never had to face (at least since being wealthy)…

I appreciate the point you are making.

I had someone save me. Not from my own behavior, but from the mental health collapse I suffered, after the bizarre and damaging choices of someone else completely undid me and my circumstances. My gratitude to the person who held onto me until I could start mending will never fade.

I am very glad you also had good people there for you. We all need those people.

> I feel bad for this woman

But it's a little difficult to feel sympathy for this lady. She is relentlessly destroying a vulnerable persons life, who already had her own grief and health repercussions to deal with. As her husband who openly disagrees with her puts it, as part of her "grieving" process.

I hope this situation ends with legal justice that reflects the realities.

Given Cindy Bi is on her way to becoming famous, it won't be as unidirectional from here.

Re: A venture capitalist goes to extremes to punish her surrogate

#20

Post by techopop »

saxelsen wrote: post #17
TrackerFF wrote: post #4

So I read the whole story...this Bi character sounds like every bad Silicon Valley yuppie stereotype rolled into one, with a big dose of legit mental illness. The lady sounded extremely manic. Don't know if it is just rage bait, but sure worked that way.

This story sounds like the worst consequence of American liberalism and capitalism in one. This would be a hit TV show on par with Baby Reindeer, if it was ever televised.

This has nothing to do with liberalism. Money thinking it has dominion over others. Eugenics, creating databases of wombs and controlling what a woman does with her body. That is all right out of the republican playbook. Look up Peter Theil and palantir, Vance’s maker. Same old story, new tech bro faces.
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