Anne Phillips
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691150864
- eISBN:
- 9781400846368
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691150864.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter addresses the markets in bodily services, focusing on commercial surrogacy rather than prostitution. The reason for this is that with surrogacy it is easier to separate out concerns ...
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This chapter addresses the markets in bodily services, focusing on commercial surrogacy rather than prostitution. The reason for this is that with surrogacy it is easier to separate out concerns about commodification from concerns about the activity itself. With prostitution, the two are almost impossibly entwined. It considers the most powerful objection to commercial surrogacy: the idea that it turns babies into “things” that can be bought and sold, as well as questions about the validity the surrogate's consent. It argues that the key issue in surrogacy is not the commodification of babies, or whether the surrogate knows what she is doing when she enters the contract, or whether she is entitled to some financial reward. The problem is that when surrogacy is put in an explicitly commercial context, this shapes the practices and relationships in potentially damaging ways.Less
This chapter addresses the markets in bodily services, focusing on commercial surrogacy rather than prostitution. The reason for this is that with surrogacy it is easier to separate out concerns about commodification from concerns about the activity itself. With prostitution, the two are almost impossibly entwined. It considers the most powerful objection to commercial surrogacy: the idea that it turns babies into “things” that can be bought and sold, as well as questions about the validity the surrogate's consent. It argues that the key issue in surrogacy is not the commodification of babies, or whether the surrogate knows what she is doing when she enters the contract, or whether she is entitled to some financial reward. The problem is that when surrogacy is put in an explicitly commercial context, this shapes the practices and relationships in potentially damaging ways.
Elina Nilsson
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781526138569
- eISBN:
- 9781526152138
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7765/9781526138576.00014
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
This chapter explores the intimate labour performed by surrogate mothers in the globalized fertility market. Using her body and providing her womb and uterus, blood and sweat, the surrogate mother ...
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This chapter explores the intimate labour performed by surrogate mothers in the globalized fertility market. Using her body and providing her womb and uterus, blood and sweat, the surrogate mother engages in a highly embodied labour (Pande, 2014). At the same time, the non-genetic relation between the foetus and the surrogate is used by clients and clinics to reduce the woman to a ‘gestational carrier’ and a ‘mere vessel’ (Gupta, 2008; Pande, 2010). By drawing on interviews with Thai women enrolled in transnational commercial surrogacy, this chapter highlights the surrogate mothers’ precarious and vulnerable position in a process of cross-cultural biotechnological intervention with inherently differential power relations among the stakeholders.Less
This chapter explores the intimate labour performed by surrogate mothers in the globalized fertility market. Using her body and providing her womb and uterus, blood and sweat, the surrogate mother engages in a highly embodied labour (Pande, 2014). At the same time, the non-genetic relation between the foetus and the surrogate is used by clients and clinics to reduce the woman to a ‘gestational carrier’ and a ‘mere vessel’ (Gupta, 2008; Pande, 2010). By drawing on interviews with Thai women enrolled in transnational commercial surrogacy, this chapter highlights the surrogate mothers’ precarious and vulnerable position in a process of cross-cultural biotechnological intervention with inherently differential power relations among the stakeholders.
Arlie Russell Hochschild
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780520272279
- eISBN:
- 9780520956780
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520272279.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
This book is a collection of thirteen essays that focus on the impact of social forces on the emotional side of intimate life. In a sensitizing introductory section, the author focuses on the “work” ...
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This book is a collection of thirteen essays that focus on the impact of social forces on the emotional side of intimate life. In a sensitizing introductory section, the author focuses on the “work” it takes to keep personal life personal, put feeling into work, and empathize with others. In other sections, the author explores the effect of the social-class gap on family well-being, the cultural “blur” between market and home, and the movement of care workers around the globe.Less
This book is a collection of thirteen essays that focus on the impact of social forces on the emotional side of intimate life. In a sensitizing introductory section, the author focuses on the “work” it takes to keep personal life personal, put feeling into work, and empathize with others. In other sections, the author explores the effect of the social-class gap on family well-being, the cultural “blur” between market and home, and the movement of care workers around the globe.
