Biology Commodification and Women Self-determination. Beyond the Surrogacy Ban

Abstract

Starting with the analysis of the recent European Parliament’s stands on surrogacy, in the frame of the wider bioethical debate on reproductive rights, the aim of this essay is twofold. Considering the low number of States that allow surrogacy on a commercial basis and the relatively low percentage of live births from surrogacy itself, this paper aims firstly to trace and problematize the recurring arguments against surrogacy, involving in the analysis not only appeals and campaigns promoted against it, but also the interventions of the European Court for Human Rights and of the Committee on Social Affairs. Secondly, examining the bioethical perspectives not against surrogacy, from the neoliberal to the feminist and materialist approaches, the essay aims at presenting some of the possible thesis in favour of the recourse to new reproductive technologies.