It seems like nowadays, the American public wants to know every single detail about every celebrity’s life. Tabloid magazines are available at every supermarket in each checkout aisle, usually covered with scandalous headlines that jump out and grab the reader by the part of the brain that creates curiosity. People like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton hardly go a day without the paparazzi snatching unfortunate pictures of them and selling these pictures to the tabloid magazines so that the publication can then go and create the most garish piece of gossip, with little regard for the truth, in order to draw the attention of gossip-hungry individuals. The whole thing seems so base and amoral – why are the lives of celebrities so interesting anyway? Nevertheless, the cycle continues and the paparazzi continue to hunt down celebs like a tiger stalking its prey. Not only do the paparazzi want pictures of celebrities, though; rather, for a picture to be worth the time, it must be the first picture to capture some aspect of the celebrities’ lives. That is why celebrity baby pictures are such a valued commodity.

Think about it: whenever any woman gives birth to a baby, everybody on the block, every relative, and strangers on the street want to see the baby, pinch his or her cheeks, and try to make the baby laugh. When celebrities give birth to babies, this want is magnified immensely, especially when the child is the offspring of a beautiful star like Angelina Jolie. Coincidentally, she and her husband Brad Pitt are at the middle of the controversy surrounding the supposed exploitation of celebrity children for monetary gain. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt received the handsome sum of $4.3 million as payment for the exclusive rights to the first baby pictures of their first biological child, Shiloh. Then, when Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt had twins on July 12, People magazine, along with the British Hello! Magazine, paid a sum of about $14 million to run the exclusive baby pictures. Sure enough, the publication that featured the baby pictures was People magazine’s best-selling edition after the 9-11 edition, selling about 2.2 million copies. Of course, there would be more outrage at Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s actions had they not donated the proceeds to an African charity, but nevertheless, one must wonder if these actions are ethical.

Brangelina is not the only star-studded couple to offer pictures of their newborns to the highest bidder. People magazine reportedly purchased rights to the first pictures of Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony’s twins for $6 million. Matthew McConaughey and his girlfriend Camila Alves were able to fetch $3 million for the first photos of their newborn son from OK! Magazine. Singer Christina Aguilera received $1.5 million for the first photos of her newborn son Max. Jessica Alba and Cash Warren’s were able to sell the first photos of their child for $1.5 million to OK! Magazine. Reportedly, Jessica Alba did not want to sell the pictures of her baby to the weekly magazines, but facing an immense amount of pressure from all sides, as well as perhaps being allured by the six-figure sum, she eventually caved in and offered the baby pictures up to the highest bidder.

There is plenty of controversy surrounding the practice of selling baby pictures to the highest bidder. CNN’s Anderson Cooper blogs that although selling these baby photos remains perfectly legal, doing so is still wrong. Just because we have the legal right to do something, Cooper writes, that does not make the action morally right. He also says that parents who sell photos of their children are compromising the safety and security of these children and instantly denying them the right of a normal life since they are already in the public eye upon birth. Anderson Cooper also makes the case that infants are not yet able to consent to having their picture taken and sold to tabloids, and a child in this sort of position may grow up to distrust his or her parents because of this breach of trust. As the controversy has brewed, many people have expressed similar opinions to those of Anderson Cooper, as is evident from the comments left in response to Cooper’s blog.

Of course, there are two sides to every issue, and the opposing side is taken by the tabloid industry as well as by those who do not see what is inherently wrong about selling baby pictures. The tabloid industry would rather not be in this situation, but the fact remains that exclusive baby pictures transfer to sales, and more sales means more profits for the struggling tabloid industry. After all, the paparazzi, the tabloid writers, and the rest of the magazine staff need to put food on the table, and if the weekly publications are not compelling enough to get people to buy them, the whole industry begins to shrivel. Although most celebrity picture purchases thus far have not been instantly profitable for the magazines involved, their ability to procure exclusive baby pictures gives them more credibility among the tabloids, increases their exposure, and draws in more long-term profits by the rise in popularity and subscriptions. Basically, the weekly publications are forced to bid on baby pictures to stay afloat, but even then, they have difficulty affording the outrageous costs that these baby pictures can eventually accrue.

This begs the question: why do celebrities sell the pictures in the first place? Many child psychologists have expressed great concern about the practice, stating that the sale of baby pictures to the highest bidders instantly skews the focus of the parent-child relationship. Although babies are not yet aware that their photos are all over the world on the covers of magazines in every supermarket, once they are aware of what their parents did, they may become extremely troubled and resent their parents’ decision. As far as the stars’ decisions to donate most of the money to charity, probably as a means to justify taking the money in the first place, it is difficult to imagine a mega-star that does not already have the ability to give large amounts of money to charity without exploiting their child. Even if the money goes to a good purpose, one could question the means by which the stars acquired the money.

Although the storm of controversy surrounding celebrity moms selling their baby pictures to tabloid publications continues to range, there are plenty of opportunities to look at the practice from both sides of the fence. The tabloid magazines are just trying to stay afloat in a market where people are struggling economically and there is not much disposable income to be spent on tabloid magazines. For these publications, investing in exclusive baby pictures is a way to increase the popularity of the magazine in the hopes of profiting. A large portion of America, though, sees the practice as something that should end because of the disturbing exploitation of babies. Nevertheless, we will most likely continue to see the offspring of celebrities adorning the covers of the most popular tabloid publications in the country, so if you are a sucker for baby pictures, you need not look any further than People magazine and OK! Magazine.