ABSTRACT
The Warnock Report was published in July 1984. Surrogacy hit the English headlines a few months later, with the birth of a baby known as "Baby Cotton." The baby was borne by Mrs. Kim Cotton. She had been impregnated by artificial insemination from the sperm of a Mr. X, known only to be a foreigner. Background on political argumentation and English law is necessary to disentangle the dispute about surrogacy in England. In political settings, arguments are often voiced not because they are necessarily believed but because they are effective in achieving or preventing a piece of legislation. These may be termed "political arguments." The US commercial agency which arranged for Mrs. Cotton to act as surrogate mother for Baby Cotton argued that no one got rich on their arrangements. The surrogate mother just got "compensation" for her trouble, and the agency, which put in a lot of work, got a normal, by no means exorbitant, fee.
