Saint Helena is in no way comparable because it's not disputed territory. Back when Mauritius became independent the British carved out some islands for their continued colonial use, breaking (back then brand new) international law.

Saint Helena has no such connection to another country and it was uninhabited before the Dutch settled. The Brits later conquered it but even if the Dutch want it back it'd keep its autonomous territory status and therefore its own TLD, the Dutch have plenty of those.

Serbia isn't going to vanish any time soon.

Allowing limited liability companies to exist without requiring them to be covered by liability insurance is institutionalised market failure.

Very simple contracts can be very unconscionable.

If we're talking solely exploitation of poor women then we have to add sewing in sweatshops to that list. The thing that make prostitution and surrogacy special is the degree of intimacy involved and, at least depending on person, prostitution is closer to sweatshops in that regard than to surrogacy. Not to mention that there's also a kid involved who didn't consent to anything at all. Adoption can be traumatic, with surrogacy that's done with premeditation.

And yes, at least according to German law contracts about sexual services aren't enforceable from the client side, you're not entitled to more than your money back. In countries without legal framework the situation is generally way more nasty. And just for completeness' sake: It's on the list of jobs the welfare office can't make you take up.

That's kinda misleading because those are all commodities, at least broadly speaking. You can get that stuff anywhere.

The actual nuclear option is denying the yanks all those products that hidden champions produce, that you can't get anywhere else, where the situation is very one-sided.

Last time around though it sufficed to do targeted sanctions, seemingly nonsensical stuff like motor cycles and peanut products. See you have a look at where Trump's backers have their electoral districts, what they produce and let's just say Harley-Davidson still hasn't recovered and the peanut butter I buy in the supermarket down the street is still from the Netherlands. They switched suppliers back in the days and apparently saw no reason to switch back.

Not really. With prostitution you agree to provide a service, right here and now, in the present. With surrogacy you agree to provide a service over months, a service which will either a) cause you to have a tight bond with a child, then be legally obliged to give it up even though you might want to keep it, or b) fuck you up psychologically trying to not establish that bond.

That is: People are capable of having meaningless sex. People aren't capable of bearing children without that being personally meaningful on a very fundamental level. Commodifying the first is meh, the latter, welcome to late stage capitalism where absolutely fucking everything is for sale.

Commercial surrogacy is only legal in Belgium, Ireland, and Zyprus within the EU.

If you're e.g. German couple and sign a contract with a Belgian woman in Belgium then Germany is going to say "Yep that kid is obviously not yours, also, Belgian", irrespective of Belgium saying "wait no it's German". Germany doesn't care, Belgian law is Belgium's problem they brought it on themselves.

States absolutely can and do prosecute things that people are doing in other states, the broader concept is called universal jurisdiction. In Germany's case that's: a) Some stuff that Germans do and aren't punished (legally or practically) abroad, that doesn't include underage drinking but it does e.g. include child sexual abuse and bribing officials, b) Some stuff that foreign citizens do that affect Germans, e.g. if a German gets murdered abroad by a non-German the authorities here will open a case, and c) Some stuff anyone doing anywhere to anyone, like war crimes and genocide.

I don't think surrogacy should be on that list as simply not recognising the purported mother/child relation is sufficient but it's not like the basic concept of punishing your people for things they do elsewhere is unheard of.

The string “AAAAA” cannot be said to be greater or less than “AAAAB”, besides the very special case when we order it.

I hate it to break it to you but it's the same with numbers.

Surrogacy is not a personal choice by a couple but a contract with a third person affecting the legal status of a fourth person.

Plenty of states where surrogacy is illegal for everyone, plenty of states where the LGBT angle doesn't even begin to be an argument because they can adopt, use IFV, etc.

Pfft, amateurs. Discordian popes can apply infallibility retroactively.

Healthy, well-functioning society would mean allowing adoption and IFV for LGBT folks and still outlawing surrogacy, or at the very least commercial surrogacy.

Probably a sign of our times that any- and everything is commodified, including mother/child bonds. What's even more nuts is that there's countries where prostitution is illegal but commercial surrogacy legal.