Before I began reading the essays on surrogate motherhood, I had already formed an opinion on the issue - namely, that there were no ethical problems with it. While aware that my knowledge of the issue was far from complete, I thought it was probably extensive enough that I could make a fairly confident judgement. However, after reading the initial essay, I determined that - while there is no ethical problem with an ideally implemented system of surrogate motherhood - as the practice exists today there are actually several problems with it. Furthermore, a number of challenging problems even caused me to consider that the concept of surrogate motherhood itself might be unethical (although I later developed, or read in one of the later essays, solutions to these problems.)
This made me think about premature judgements in general. While I don't think there is a problem with them, this only holds true when one remains open to revising their initial opinions, and when one is careful to investigate an assumption further before applying it in any practical context. Holding on to old opinions even in light of new, contradictory evidence, or applying an opinion in an important context when one does not have sufficient relevant information, can and does cause many problems in the world today. I shall have to examine my own opinions and determine which of them I should soonest investigate further for practical and ethical reasons.
