Surrogate motherhood is treated as a form of adoption in many countries: the birth mother and her partner are presumed to be the parents of the child, while the intended parents have to adopt the baby once it is born. Other than compensation for expenses related to the pregnancy, payment to surrogates is not permitted. We believe that the failure to compensate surrogate mothers for their labour as well as the significant risks they undertake is both unfair and exploitative. We (...) accept that introducing payment for surrogates would create a significant tension in the adoption model. However, we recommend rejecting the adoption model altogether rather than continuing to prohibit compensation to surrogates. (shrink)

As a method of family formation, cross-border surrogacy is controversial and beset by risks of exploitation. This article extends the literature on surrogacy by examining the way Australian surrogacy promotion and information events represent cross-border surrogacy. It examines the emerging phenomenon of surrogacy events held by a not-for-profit surrogacy organization to promote cross-border surrogacy in Australia—a country that prohibits commercial surrogacy. The article draws on observations from a series of surrogacy events in Australia and online during the 2019–21 time period. (...) It examines the presentations given at these events by surrogacy facilitators, surrogate mothers, and intended parents. We observed four themes: (1) Intended parents are positioned as consumers, (2) the benefits of cross-border commercial surrogacy are highlighted relative to other methods of family formation, (3) the positive side of cross-border surrogacy is accentuated, and (4) reproductive rights are emphasized. These representations run counter to feminist framings of cross-border surrogacy as exploitative and risky. This paper understands that the framing of surrogacy that occurs at these promotion events to be neoliberal in nature. The conceptualization helps explain their consumerist peppiness and commodifying subjectivity. (shrink)

In Markets Without Limits and a series of related papers, Jason Brennan and Peter Jaworski argue that it is morally permissible to buy and sell anything that it is morally permissible to possess and exchange outside of the market. Accordingly, we should open markets in “contested commodities” including blood, gametes, surrogacy services, and transplantable organs. This paper clarifies some important aspects of the case for market boundaries and in so doing shows why there are in fact moral limits to the (...) market. I argue that the case for restricting the scope of the market does not turn on the idea that some things are constitutively non-market goods; it turns instead on the idea that treating some things according to market norms would threaten the realization of particular kinds of human interests. (shrink)

Surrogacy tourism in Asian countries has surged in recent decades due to affordable prices and favourable regulations. Although it has recently been banned in many countries, it is still carried out illegally across borders. With demand for surrogacy in developed countries increasing and economically vulnerable Asian women lured by lucrative compensation, there are efforts by guest countries to ease the strict surrogacy regulations in host countries. Despite a shift toward “altruistic surrogacy”, commercial surrogacy persists. Recent research carried out by international (...) organizations that seek to establish a legal relationship between the commissioning parents and children in cross-border surrogacy arrangements, under the guise of the “best interests of the child,” appears to promote a resurgence of overseas commercial surrogacy rather than restrict it. Further commercialization of surrogacy should be prevented by carefully investigating the reality of the surrogacy process. (shrink)

It is unclear what proper remuneration for surrogacy is, since countries disagree and both commercial and altruistic surrogacy have ethical drawbacks. In the presence of cross-border surrogacy, these ethical drawbacks are exacerbated. In this article, we explore what would be ethical remuneration for surrogacy, and suggest regulations for how to ensure this in the international context. A normative ethical analysis of commercial surrogacy is conducted. Various arguments against commercial surrogacy are explored, such as exploitation and commodification of surrogates, reproductive capacities, (...) and the child. We argue that, although commodification and exploitation can occur, these problems are not specific to surrogacy but should be understood in the broader context of an unequal world. Moreover, at least some of these arguments are based on symbolic rhetoric or they lack knowledge of real-world experiences. In line with this critique we argue that commercial surrogacy can be justified, but how and under what circumstances depends on the context. Surrogates should be paid a sufficient amount and regulations should be in order. In this article, the Netherlands and India are case examples of contexts that differ in many respects. In both contexts, surrogacy can be seen as a legitimate form of work, which requires the same wage and safety standards as other forms of labor. Payments for surrogacy need to be high enough to avoid exploitation by underpayment, which can be established by the mechanisms of either minimum wage, or Fair-Trade guidelines. An international treaty governing commercial surrogacy should be in place, and local professional bodies to protect the interests of surrogates should be required. Commercial surrogacy should be permitted across the globe, which would also reduce the need for intended parents to seek surrogacy services abroad. (shrink)

BackgroundThe bioethical debates concerning living donation and surrogacy revolve around similar ethical questions and moral concepts. Nevertheless, the ethical discourses in both fields grew largely isolated from each other.MethodsBased on a review of ethical, sociological and anthropological research this paper aims to link the ethical discourses on living kidney donation and surrogacy by providing a comparative analysis of the two practices’ relational dimension with regard to three aspects, i.e. the normative role of relational dynamics, social norms and gender roles, and (...) reciprocity. Based on this analysis, we derive conclusions for the framing of living organ donation and surrogacy in ethical theory and practice.ResultsFirst, our analysis emphasizes the relevance of acknowledging the complex relational implications of living kidney donation and surrogacy. Underestimating this relational dimension may not only lead to individual crises but endanger existing as well as newly emerging familial relationships. Second, we point out differences in the normative assessment of social norms and gender roles in the ethical debates about living kidney donation and surrogacy. In particular, we show how different evaluations of altruism affect the understanding of autonomy in both contexts. In addition, we sensitize for biased perceptions of gender roles. Finally, we argue that challenges resulting from unresolved reciprocity are an issue in living kidney donation and surrogacy independent of whether the exchange of body parts or bodily services is framed as a gift or commercial exchange. By pointing out the limits of financial compensation, we stress the relevance of non-material, relational rewards as potential remedy. (shrink)

Tässä artikkelissa tarkastelen feministisen bioetiikan näkökulmia sijaissynnyttämiseen. Keskityn erityisesti sijaissynnytykseen konstruoimiseen työksi, äitiyden käsitteeseen sekä kaupallisuuden ja sen määrittelemisen pohdintaan. Kysyn, onko sijaissynnyttäjälle maksettava palkkio riittävä tai välttämättä edes moraalisesti keskeisin eettisesti kestämättömän kaupallisuuden määrittäjä. Esitän, että sijaissynnyttämisen mieltäminen työksi voisi auttaa laatimaan eettisesti kestävää säätelyä, jota Suomessa ei tällä hetkellä ole. Sijaissynnyttämisen täyskielto Suomen kaltaisissa korkean reproduktioterveyden, globaalisti verraten pienten tuloerojen maissa ruokkii kolonialistista reproduktioturismia. Katson, että äitiyden käsitteellistä paikkaa sijaissynnytyskonstruktioissa ja sen vaikutuksia sijaissynnytyskäytenteisiin tulisi tarkastella kriittisesti. Nähdäkseni sijaissynnytystä (...) tulisi myös tarkastella suhteessa ammattikasvattamisen ja -hoivaamisen etiikkaan. (shrink)