Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: Gestational surrogacy – carrying someone else’s baby (or babies) to term and giving birth to them – is perhaps one of the most intimate acts a human being can perform for others. However, the proliferation of commercial surrogacy has drawn concern and criticism, with many scholars arguing that it both creates and exacerbates global social and economic inequalities. Commercial surrogacy thus raises both the possibility of global intimate connection and the specter of reproductive exploitation. I therefore explore the various, shifting, and often discordant desires for intimate connection between the intending parent(s), the surrogate mother, and the resulting child(ren) in commercial surrogacy. I then examine how those intimacies intersect with commercial surrogacy’s socioeconomic inequalities. Weighing commercial surrogacy’s driving desires and intimate practices against its commercialization, I end with a reconsideration of the procreative desires and intimate practices that spur current international commercial surrogacy (ICS), urging an emphasis on reproductive justice.
Source: Sociological Research Online
Author: Kristen E Cheney
Institution: Erasmus University Rotterdam
Language: English
Subfield: Reproductive Medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
SDG: Reduced inequalities
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,000
OpenAlex ID: W3127740046