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In this article, we explore the perspectives of commercial gestational surrogates in California, USA. Women who gestate for others reveal themselves as important agents in the process of giving meaning and cultural legitimacy to their practice, thus demonstrating their capacity to act in their own interest and resignify their work in their own terms. To them, surrogacy is more than wage labor. They assert the importance of their experience as a source of professional skills, downplaying its monetary value and placing it within favorable moral frameworks, thus finding cultural legitimacy. In doing so, they bridge the divide between traditional female reproductive work (unpaid emotional, relational, and care work) and productive work (paid professional work in the public sphere). They achieve this without subverting the underlying values of western kinship. The results shed light on employability and entrepreneurship of surrogates in the fertility industry of California. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human reproduction is increasingly marketised with technologies that alter the traditional parameters of parenthood and childbirth, casting doubt on the legitimacy of the premises of biological foundationalism. This conceptual paper explores the sociology of markets by conceptualising the emergence of the reproductive tourism market in China as the outcome of institutional work. Drawing on a historical trajectory that extends from the Maoist era to the Reformation and Post-reformation era, we demonstrate how the reproductive tourism market emerges as a result of a combination of historical, political, socio-cultural forces, epitomising a social process of market development. This study demonstrates how technology and the proliferation of consumer culture have transformed parenthood in China into a new form of conspicuous consumption, and addresses a relatively infrequently studied topic in current marketing literature, the nexus of geneticized markets and consumer culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION. Surrogate motherhood is a social phenomenon characterized by drawing up a legal contract stating that a woman will manage the child for other people, thereby giving up her right as a mother. This can be done under a wide range of situations depending on the reason to perform this practice such as the economic or altruistic one. This can lead to practices such as reproductive tourism according to the laws established in each nation. OBJECTIVES. Analyze surrogate motherhood throughout a scientific literature review. METHOD. A bibliographic review has been carried out through the PubMed and SciELO databases.RESULTS. Eleven articles are analyzed and there are various perspectives for surrogate motherhood; authors who support this practice and its legalization, authors who are against it and, finally, others that support its regularization. CONCLUSIONS. Surrogate motherhood has two sights: the ethical and the pragmatic. According to ethics, there’s a commodification of women without considering the risks and emotional aspects of being pregnant. On the other hand, from a pragmatic point of view, surrogate motherhood is a highly controversial subject that generates an international issue that is difficult to regulate. Finally, from a nurse’s point of view, it is essential to train the entire interdisciplinary team and create protocols of action in order to provide comprehensive and high-quality care.

This article examines the webpages of Russian reproductive clinics and surrogacy agencies that offer surrogacy to foreign clients. Theoretically and analytically, the article is anchored in the works of Donna Haraway and Jean Baudrillard. While the websites are conceptualised as worldings, context-dependent ensembles of practices and possibilities articulated via images and text, the main focus of the analysis is the material-semiotic production of the surrogate in these worldings. The analysis reveals material-semiotic eugenics that render the surrogate a simulacrum, thus challenging her status as human. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Analytic Divinity is the property of Analytic Divinity Center and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Risks to gestational surrogates became a concern for public health. In commercial gestational surrogacy arrangements, gestational surrogates are commonly recruited from low- to middle-income countries. Thailand is well known as a surrogacy hub in this regard. However, little is known concerning Thai surrogacy practice and the risks that Thai gestational surrogates experiences. The semi-structured interviews with fifteen Thai women who had been gestational surrogates were conducted over the telephone in Thai between March and May 2020 and lasted approximately 30 minutes. Thematic analysis was applied to analyse the translated interviews. The findings indicated that 'womb for work' was perceived as a surrogacy career among Thai women. 'Womb for work' was defined as a superordinate theme that consisted of three subthemes: (i) gestational surrogacy arrangements in Thailand; (ii) the business model of gestational surrogacy arrangements in Thailand; and (iii) risk experiences of gestational surrogates. Clear deficiencies in surrogacy practice and regulations were identified, which put gestational surrogates at risk, including those associated with embryo transfer, transnational gestational surrogacy, and unsupported pregnancies. This study shows the urgent need to introduce regulations to protect women's health transnationally in this domain more effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Logos: A Journal, of Religion, Philosophy Comparative Cultural Studies & Art (08687692) is the property of Logos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract Background The number of women living in Italy and seeking cross-border reproductive care (CBRC), especially for medically assisted reproduction (MAR), has increased. The purpose of this study was to explore CBRC attitudes and behaviours among a cohort of reproductive-aged women who have never engaged in CBRC to gauge social and cultural perceptions and gain a deeper understanding of family planning discourse. Methods In-depth interviews were conducted during May – June 2018 with 30 women aged 18–50 living in or around Florence, Italy and enrolled in the Italian healthcare system. Interviews offered in-depth insight into CBRC attitudes, behaviours, and experiences among a cohort of women living in Italy who had never engaged in CBRC. Researchers used an expanded grounded theory through open and axial coding. Emergent themes were identified via a constant comparison approach. Results Three themes and two subthemes emerged from the data. Participants discussed how limitations in Italy’s access to MAR can lead women to seek reproductive healthcare in other countries. Women had mixed feelings about the effect of religion on legislation and reproductive healthcare access, with many views tied to religious and spiritual norms impacting MAR treatment-seeking in-country and across borders. Participants perceived infertility and CBRC-seeking as socially isolating, as the motherhood identity was highly revered. The financial cost of traveling for CBRC limited access and exacerbated emotional impacts. Conclusions Findings offered insight into CBRC perceptions and intentions, presenting a deeper understanding of the existing family planning discourse among reproductive-aged women. This may allow policymakers and practitioners to address social and cultural perceptions, increase access to safe and effective local care, and empower women in their family planning decisions.

Objective: The study examines the factors of cost and quality of assisted reproduction services in Greece in comparison with international data and evaluates the benefits that both patients and the health system of our country have. Method: The methodology used included, first, a bibliographic review of available sources and, second, the research study through the distribution of questionnaires to patients seeking services in the field of assisted reproductive technologies (ART). This questionnaire included 22 questions and the collection of statistical data was done through a sample survey because the sample was easy to collect. The survey was conducted from November 2021 to March 2022, and the number of completed questionnaires was 417. Results: The results of the survey confirmed the importance of high-quality services in health care facilities (73.7%) combined with significantly low costs (20.1%). However, the cost of ART in Greece is considered high by 76.3% of respondents. However, the correlation between country of permanent residence and cost perception (p=0.000 < 0.05) showed that women with permanent residence in Greece perceived the cost of ART services as high by 81.1%, while most women with permanent residence abroad (53.5%) perceived it as moderate. Our country was chosen as a destination for assisted reproduction because of its accessibility (33.6%), while Greek in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics/facilities were chosen due to their health facilities and attending physicians (54.1%). In addition, the need for post-treatment accommodation led to a request for additional services. Conclusions: Greece is considered a popular destination for reproductive tourism. However, it needs to be further promoted, as the main sources of information are medical professionals (43.7%) and social circles (41%). Nevertheless, 90.5% of respondents agree with the recommendation for Greece as a destination for reproductive tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narratives of commercial gestational surrogacy (CGS) as ‘baby-selling’ often conflate or interchange the transfer of children born via surrogacy with trafficking in children or the sale of children, two sometimes overlapping but nonetheless distinct offenses. Moreover, anti-trafficking laws have been used to police cross-border CGS. But when do CGS arrangements fall within the category of legitimate ‘reproductive tourism’ and when do they amount to child trafficking? In this paper I critically explore intersections between human trafficking laws and CGS, vis-à-vis the child, charting the relevant trafficking laws in the context of international surrogacy, and analysing whether trafficking laws are an appropriate mechanism through which to regulate CGS. I conclude that while child trafficking might occur via surrogacy, CGS in itself is not child trafficking under international law.

Background: The number of women living in Italy and seeking cross-border reproductive care (CBRC), especially for medically assisted reproduction (MAR), has increased. The purpose of this study was to explore CBRC attitudes and behaviours among a cohort of reproductive-aged women who have never engaged in CBRC to gauge social and cultural perceptions and gain a deeper understanding of family planning discourse.Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted during May - June 2018 with 30 women aged 18-50 living in or around Florence, Italy and enrolled in the Italian healthcare system. Interviews offered in-depth insight into CBRC attitudes, behaviours, and experiences among a cohort of women living in Italy who had never engaged in CBRC. Researchers used an expanded grounded theory through open and axial coding. Emergent themes were identified via a constant comparison approach.Results: Three themes and two subthemes emerged from the data. Participants discussed how limitations in Italy's access to MAR can lead women to seek reproductive healthcare in other countries. Women had mixed feelings about the effect of religion on legislation and reproductive healthcare access, with many views tied to religious and spiritual norms impacting MAR treatment-seeking in-country and across borders. Participants perceived infertility and CBRC-seeking as socially isolating, as the motherhood identity was highly revered. The financial cost of traveling for CBRC limited access and exacerbated emotional impacts.Conclusions: Findings offered insight into CBRC perceptions and intentions, presenting a deeper understanding of the existing family planning discourse among reproductive-aged women. This may allow policymakers and practitioners to address social and cultural perceptions, increase access to safe and effective local care, and empower women in their family planning decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studia Luridica Montenegrina is the property of University of Donja Gorica, Faculty of Legal Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Caring for the coming generations is vital for every society, and the processes that accompany human reproduction are of particular interest to parents, prenatal care providers and the public in general. The ethical and legal issues that arise in terms of new biological findings and their implementation in the field of assisted reproduction are set as a priority requirement in order to identify the values and interests that the legal order seeks to protect, prevent potential abuses, and clearly regulate the doctor-patient relationship in the context of medically assisted reproduction procedures. Although these days every EU country (except Ireland) has legislation governing assisted reproduction, accompanied by professional guidelines, there is still no European consensus on this matter. Moreover, it seems that the EU has so far refrained from adopting acts that will be binding on all Member States, consciously leaving this area largely dependent on the moral and ethical views of the Member States, which need to regulate it themselves. Due to the diversity of legal solutions in this area, as well as the ability to move freely through EU countries, a large number of patients decide to travel to countries that have more liberal legal solutions in the domain of assisted reproduction. This widespread phenomenon on the EU soil is called reproductive tourism and it represents a direct consequence of the lack of supranational legal sources in this area. It is through the example of reproductive tourism that the author analyses the extent to which the right to freedom of movement in the EU law affects the right of individuals, in Member States, to gain access to ethically controversial treatments available only in certain EU Member States.

Narratives of commercial gestational surrogacy (CGS) as 'baby-selling' often conflate or interchange the transfer of children born via surrogacy with trafficking in children or the sale of children, two sometimes overlapping but nonetheless distinct offenses. Moreover, anti-trafficking laws have been used to police cross-border CGS. But when do CGS arrangements fall within the category of legitimate 'reproductive tourism' and when do they amount to child trafficking? In this paper I critically explore intersections between human trafficking laws and CGS, vis-à-vis the child, charting the relevant trafficking laws in the context of international surrogacy, and analysing whether trafficking laws are an appropriate mechanism through which to regulate CGS. I conclude that while child trafficking might occur via surrogacy, CGS in itself is not child trafficking under international law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the most medically advanced nations in the world, it is observed that more Japanese couples are travelling abroad for Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART). At present, at least one in six Japanese couples suffer from infertility and requires the use of ART. However, the usage of ART has raised several ethical questions. Notably, Japanese society objects to the use of donor eggs and surrogacy. Thus, reproductive tourism that offers prohibited procedures in another country becomes a viable alternative. Drawing upon institutional theory, specifically regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive pillars, this paper demonstrates that the emerging phenomenon of outbound reproductive tourism from Japan can be seen as an outcome of the interplay of institutional forces. A conceptual model of reproductive tourism is also proposed to advance the existing nebulous understanding of the phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background For many people, the need for parenthood remains unfulfilled due to biological reasons and a remedy for these individuals is assisted reproduction (AR). Because of widely differing and sometimes incompatible legislations around the world related to AR, there is considerable confusion across national borders. Within Europe, Greece seems to be in a comparatively favorable position because of lower restrictions and the availability of decent quality specialized medical facilities. This research is a market study with a business perspective and explores the emerging landscape of reproductive tourism (RT) in Greece. Methods The research adopted mixed methods. First, open-ended questions were used to interview foreign medical tourists and staff in various AR clinics. Based on the insights from these interviews and guided by the extent literature, a survey instrument was prepared and administered among 130 patients. Results Findings indicate that Greece still lack policies that nurture transparency and dynamic response to technological changes in AR. Also, the travel industry lack specialists who can effectively liaison with clinics, who understand the availability of AR technologies, regulations, and the unique needs of AR tourists. Conclusions Globally, the need for assisted reproduction has tremendously increased; yet, the supply of facilities is lagging far behind. There is a unique advantage for clinics located in touristic locations in countries that offer cheaper treatment options. Given the shape of its debt-ridden economy, Greece needs foreign exchange inflows and gaining first mover advantage in reproductive tourism is probably an important way to achieve this. This research draws up a reproductive tourism strategy for Greece.

This paper explores the use of found poetry as interpretive and aesthetic inquiry into the meaning and experience of reproductive tourism. The context is an ethnographic study of transnational egg donation, focusing upon the fertility services industry in Cancun, Mexico. Our source is an audio-recorded interview conducted with Maria, a young Mexican woman who struggles to maintain her integrity as a single mother donating eggs to a fertility clinic. Drawing upon Maria’s story, we experiment with three forms of found poetry as a method for listening deeply to her voice. In this paper, we share our research process, poems, and reflections.

From the 33 current civil codes in Mexico, only the State of Tabasco code regulates gestational surrogacy, codes of Coahuila de Zaragoza and Querétaro states prevent it, and the rest avoid the issue rather than discuss it. The Coahuila code considers non-existent any surrogacy arrangement in the name of another person because the authorized ones as recipients of TRHA are those who are marriaged or attached by cohabitation and even if a fertilized egg was implanted a woman who is not from the genetic material the code orders this attribute of motherhood to her. The Queretaro code prohibits embryo adoptive couples to contract the womb of a third woman. The Sinaloa Family Code also authorizes surrogacy arrangemen for free or onerous. This scenario creates legal uncertainty and constant violation of human rights of both interested in procreation and the woman that agrees to become or attempts to become pregnant and bear a child for another person or persons. En México se cuenta con 33 códigos civiles vigentes de los cuales únicamente el que rige al Estado de Tabasco regula la gestación sustituta, dos la impiden y el resto evita el tema en lugar de discutirlo. La impiden Coahuila de Zaragoza y Querétaro. La primera entidad considera inexistente todo pacto o convención que verse sobre la gestación realizada en nombre de otra persona en virtud que sólo autoriza como destinatarios de las TRHA a quienes se encuentren unidos en matrimonio o concubinato y aun en el caso que un óvulo fecundado fuese implantado en una mujer de quien no provenga el material genético ordena atribuirle a ésta la maternidad. La segunda prohíbe a las parejas adoptantes de embriones contratar el vientre de una tercera mujer. De igual forma el Código Familiar de Sinaloa también autoriza la gestación por encargo en forma gratuita u onerosa. Este panorama genera incertidumbre jurídica y una constante violación a los derechos humanos tanto de los interesados en procrear como de la mujer que gesta a favor de terceros.DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2924551

Copyright of Legal Records / Pravni Zapisi is the property of Union University Law School, Belgrade and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The essay focuses on reproductive tourism and estrangement not only from our products and people who produce what we consume but also from our emotions and our intimate lives. Concretely, the author focuses on experience of commercial surrogates in India – poor women in whom a couple’s embryo is implanted and who carry that baby to term for domestic or foreign clients. Drawing on interviews, the author analyses the world’s largest womb rental service and how – out of financial need – the surrogate manages her emotional ties to her own body.

Copyright of Revista de Antropología Social is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Denmark has become a destination for single women, lesbians, and heterosexual couples wanting donated sperm. At the moment, women from Sweden, Norway, Germany, Italy, and the UK travel to Denmark. Simultaneously, waiting lists for donated eggs and age restrictions are prime motivations for infertile Danish women and heterosexual couples to leave Denmark and travel to Spain, the Czech Republic, the Ukraine, and Greece for egg donation. Informed by Donna Haraway’s notion of “the apparatus of bodily production”, Marcia Inhorn’s development of “reproductive flows”, and the use of Adele Clarke’s “situational analysis”, this paper explores the question: How do global reproductive pathways in and out of Denmark emerge when fertility travellers narrate, negotiate, and cross national borders to go through fertility treatment? Methodologically, we use a multi-sited and multi-modal approach centring on interviews with fertility travellers moving to and from Denmark in combination with ethnographic observations carried out in Danish and Spanish fertility clinics and an analysis of legal regulations. The paper concludes by discussing how the concept of reproductive pathways helps to theorize transnational movements of bodies and contributes to feminist scholarship on transnational reproductive travel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assistive reproductive technology has progressed significantly over the past few decades. In spite of the advances, people may still resort to a surrogate for bearing and birthing a baby. Surrogacy, though an altruistic act, has been commercialized in the past few years, leading to emergence of several ethico-legal concerns. Nurses care for the surrogates, the infants, and the intended parents through their journey with sensitivity, advocacy, compassion, and confidentiality. This article intends to explore the implications of surrogacy to individuals, families, nations, and health care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs poetic inquiry as a form of interpretive and aesthetic inquiry into the meaning and experience of reproductive tourism. The context is an ethnographic study of the fertility services industry in Cancun. Drawing upon interviews with the owner of a medical tourism company and a doctor who runs a large fertility clinic, we adopt varied strategies of poetic inquiry as a means of listening deeply to the stories of participants. In particular, we ask who gets to tell the story, how is the story told and why does it matter? This is profoundly personal and political work. As the poems and our reflections on them reveal, we remain uncomfortable deriving any straightforward scholarly conclusions but rather see ourselves as engaged in work that is intended to be both critical and creative.

The purpose of this study was to explore surrogate women’s experiences of stress during the surrogacy process in India. We interviewed 15 women who had been a surrogate for an international couple at least once in their lives. The following themes emerged: stress regarding (1) physical health, (2) psychology well-being, and (3) the well-being of surrogates’ families and children. Transnational surrogates may experience more physical and psychological stress during pregnancy because their children and families continue to depend on them for support. Social workers must minimize the physical and emotional effects of surrogacy through counseling and psychosocial support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a highly globalized economic context, transnational medicine (which focuses on medical tourism) has become a rapidly expanding industry. Specifically, reproductive tourism provides more medical choices to people who are unable to become pregnant or unmarried people whose access to reproductive technologies in their home countries is prevented by law. However, this practice has been a source of controversy: its transnational character increases the risk of pregnant and has drawn accusations of eugenic practices and focusing on profit at the expense of medicine. Therefore, this article investigates the use of assisted reproductive technologies to analyze the role of gamete transfer and reproductive tourism in globalization. After conducting a literature review, we found that most patients choose countries that provide high-quality care, have low medical costs, allow patients to quickly undergo surgery and obtain gametes, and have relatively less rigorous laws. The economic capital required for reproductive tourism and the class differences it delineates demonstrate the complexity of reproductive politics. Moreover, the price of gametes differs greatly between countries, which in some cases leads to the exploitation of donors or sellers. Consequently, it is necessary to actively formulate relevant laws and regulations to protect people’s rights in reproductive tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Résumé Les conditions légales d’accès à l’assistance médicale à la procréation connaissent quelques atteintes prétoriennes comme si elles n’étaient plus adaptées à la société actuelle. Récemment, l’Assemblée du contentieux du Conseil d’État est venue « égratigner » l’esprit de l’article L. 2141-2 du Code de la santé publique par son arrêt du 31 mai 2016 1 1 CE, 31 mai 2016, n o 396848 : JurisData n o 2016-010489. en enjoignant l’Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux de Paris et l’Agence de la Biomédecine de procéder à l’exportation des gamètes en Espagne d’un homme décédé. Par sa décision, le Conseil d’État s’affranchit de l’interdit légal d’exporter les gamètes déposés en France et destinés à être utilisés, à l’étranger, à des fins qui sont prohibées sur le territoire national : la procréation post-mortem . Pourtant, la prohibition de la procréation post-mortem , ainsi affaiblie par cette décision récente du Conseil d’État, découle d’une volonté clairement affirmée et maintenue du législateur français (Section 1). Cette atteinte prétorienne supplémentaire aux conditions légales d’accès à l’assistance médicale à la procréation, dont la sommation offre des opportunités contraires à notre loi, génère de fait une situation créatrice d’inégalités qui ne peut perdurer (Section 2). The legal requirements for access to medically assisted procreation are experiencing some praetorian damage as if they were no longer adapted to today's society. Recently, the “Assemblée du contentieux du Conseil d’État” came to “scratch” the spirit of Article L. 2141-2 of the Code of public health in its judgment of 31 May 2016 by ordering the Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux of Paris and the Biomedicine Agency to carry out the export of gametes of a deceased man in Spain. In its decision, the Conseil d’État do not respects the legal prohibition of export gametes filed in France and intended to be used abroad, for purposes that are prohibited in the country: the post-mortem procreation. The prohibition of posthumous reproduction, weakened by the recent decision of the Conseil d’État, is the result of a clearly stated and maintained will of the French legislature (Section 1). This additional Praetorian affect against legal conditions of access to medically assisted procreation generates inequalities and creates an unsustainable situation (Section 2). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National laws represent a combination of customary and ethical, but also political and other opinions in a society. Particularly delicate, are the laws regulating the issue of assisted reproduction. In this area, broad social acceptance of legal solutions is an essential prerequisite for their use, while achieving the consent of the majority, especially the consensus is extremely difficult, almost impossible. As much as the laws seek to implement those views that are predominant, the adopted solutions will always remain incapable of granting wishes to a certain number of people. These persons, in an understandable effort to realize their desire for an offspring at any cost, will not hold back from seeking help at any place, even if it meant going to distant destinations and extracting large sums of money. In fact, many patients go to other countries which set less restrictive rules in the field of assisted reproduction, and it appears that in the near future we could not expect a reduction of this trend. This phenomenon, which is in theory called reproductive tourism, has long been a reality that one can see as a problem, while others view it as an irreplaceable solution. This paper seeks to highlight the main causes of this phenomenon, but also to try and give an answer as to, whether reproductive tourism should be prevented (and how) or actually its maintenance in force reduces moral conflict in society through a mechanism that recognizes the right of everyone to a considerable extent of free will in decision making regarding the most significant issues which offspring certainly is.

This review analyzes the emerging literature on reproductive tourism through a metaphorical 'reproscope,' focusing largely on cross-border egg donation and surrogacy as the prime areas of contemporary anthropological investigation. While acknowledging that reproductive travel is not new, this article recognizes that there has been an increased volume of such travel over the past couple of decades. It provides an overview of the major areas of anthropological investigation into these transnational phenomena, globalization, stratification, exploitation, race, nationalism, religion, biopower, and bioethics. I propose that these areas of investigation may provide key indications about the preoccupations of anthropology today. Namely, what kind of discipline does anthropology imagine itself to be? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are fundamental differences between countries with regard to legislation on assisted reproduction. Many infertility patients are looking to evade the law of their own country and make use of reproductive services abroad. The role of the local physician in cross-border reproductive care for law evasion has been characterized as "channeling local patients to foreign medical establishments" and "against the spirit and essence of the law". The logical view is that by supporting CBRC for law evasion, physicians are essentially supporting immoral behavior. We will tackle this position on two levels. First, we will argue that governments should generally be tolerant toward people with different positions on assisted reproduction. Second, we will show that contributing to cross-border reproductive care for law evasion is not necessarily immoral, because the prima facie wrongness of complicity in law evasion can be outweighed by the fact that physicians should act in the best interest of the patient. Several countries have tried to prevent local physicians from helping patients to make use of reproductive services abroad, but they should rather leave it up to the individual physicians to decide whether or not to support a particular patient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of AIS: Ars Iuris Salmanticensis is the property of Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The essay focuses on reproductive tourism and estrangement not only from our products and people who produce what we consume but also from our emotions and our intimate lives. Concretely, the author focuses on experience of commercial surrogates in India -- poor women in whom a couple's embryo is implanted and who carry that baby to term for domestic or foreign clients. Drawing on interviews, the author analyses the world's largest womb rental service and how -- out of financial need -- the surrogate manages her emotional ties to her own body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Old family laws presume that the husband is the father of any child born to a married couple; a socio-legal fiction. A social and biological father is presumed to be one and the same. The cocoon of legitimacy protects marriage but the child born outside valid marriage is recognised as ‘illegitimate’. Assisted reproduction technologies strengthened reproductive rights but confuse purity of lineage and genetically divorce socio-legal parentage from biological parentage. The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender reproductive rights, surrogacy, gamete donation, delayed pregnancies using cryopreserved embryos, single parentage, virgin mothers (virgin birth), live-in relationship are increasingly recognised under the cover of human dignity but obscure parentage. In contrast to parental rights of reproductive autonomy, equity demands the child’s right to know its biological parentage, recognised under Article 7 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989. DNA profiling may clarify the genetic parentage with virtual certainty but with multiple limitations. DNA forensics ascertains the genetic makeup of a child linking putative parents irrespective of any social relationship between them. The right to know biological linkages gained paramount significance in cases like displacement, adoption, child trafficking and variants of cross-genetic in vitro fertilization including complete surrogacy. The ‘reproductive tourism’ promotes crossing borders and bodies, enabling conception in the countries with extreme religious and legal barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the use of poetry as interpretive and aesthetic inquiry into the meaning and experience of reproductive tourism. Drawing upon online infertility discussion forums (focused upon fertility travel to Cancun, Mexico) we experimented with three forms of found poetry as a method for listening deeply to participants. We describe our process and identify resonances as we listen to the extraordinarily resilient voices of women struggling with infertility. This inquiry raises distinctive ethical issues, departing from typical forms of qualitative analysis in emphasizing intuition, emotion, aesthetics and respectful play in the writing process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commercialized surrogacy services, attracting an international clientele, used to be a big subterranean business in Thailand, but also made the country notorious as the “womb-of-Asia” (BBC News Asia2015); the notoriety affected the country's image, the preservation and defense of which is a crucial consideration in the national authorities’ policies and decision-making processes. This article deals with the circumstances which led to legislation that proscribed commercial surrogacy, thus sacrificing the thriving business to protect the country's image. While based primarily on a case study of the so-called Baby Gammy scandal, which revealed the scope of the surrogacy industry in Thailand, the article contributes to the understanding of the triggers which induce Thai authorities to spring into action to deal with long-existing social problems, discussed by the author in previous publications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Surrogacy is an assisted reproduction technique in which a woman commits herself to carry and give birth to a baby in order to give it to someone so that they would become legal parents of the child. The main purpose of this article is to analyze the treatment given by Spanish International Private Law to parentage links established in a foreign country as a result of a surrogacy arrangement, for the purpose of deciding which regulation would be the most reasonable taking into consideration the social context that surrounds this phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main question in this article is how national legal orders in Europe, given their often restrictive laws on reproductive markets and assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs), are currently responding and should respond to reproductive tourism, in light of the fact that access to foreign reproductive markets seems to be making these national laws ‘merely symbolic’. Although many national governments have finally managed after many years of political and legal struggles to establish a carefully balanced legal framework for the regulation of these often ethically and religiously sensitive matters, ironically reproductive travel seems to be turning national reproductive laws into a dead letter. Currently, as a reaction to these developments, new legal strategies are being proposed and explored. Within the European context, the view is gaining ground that laws that curb international reproductive markets and their accompanying streams of fertility tourism have become ineffective, meaningless, and even harmful. As a result, a certain tendency towards tolerance of reproductive markets and reproductive travel can be detected in both politics and academia. According to this line of reasoning, restrictive and prohibitive legislation should be replaced by more pragmatic policies that take the realities of reproductive markets as a starting point. From this perspective, the legal restrictions within the country of origin, rather than the lack of regulation in the country of destination, should be regarded as the core of the problem. As a result, an increasing number of scholars and policy makers are arguing for more lenient national policies towards ARTs, hoping to thereby remove the main incentive for aspiring parents to resort to foreign reproductive services. This emerging pragmatic strategy of tolerance towards reproductive tourism and international reproductive markets rests on three arguments, which are each critically examined in this article. Although these arguments offer valuable insights, several disadvantages and weaknesses tend to be overlooked. The critical examination of these pragmatic arguments is followed by a plea for a more positive understanding and recognition of the symbolic dimensions of reproductive legislation. It is argued that ART laws also have an important communicative, expressive and anthropological meaning and function, which surpass these laws' practical effectiveness. Alternatively, policies based on the pragmatic tolerance of reproductive markets show significant shortcomings, which also need to be taken into consideration by national governments when evaluating existing ART laws. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Today, there should be little doubt that new reproductive technologies have ‘diversified, globalized, and denaturalized’ human reproduction (Inhorn and Birenbaum-Carmeli 2008). Not only have assisted reproductive technologies developed and spread throughout the world at a rapid pace, but this significant development has also given rise to a global market of cross-border reproductive care (CBRC). This article seeks to investigate CBRC between Sweden and the Baltic states, in which Swedish infertility patients travel to private fertility clinics as recipients of egg donation. This article argues that the restructuring of the European space (occurring in and through both the so-called ‘transition’ of the former Eastern Bloc and the expansion of the European Union) constitutes crucial conditions of emergence for the trans-European market of infertility care, which not only results in new modalities of reproductive mobility but also articulates a new set of interrelated European gendered reproductive subjectivities. Particular attention will be paid to the ways in which such ‘new reproductive subjectivities’ – here exemplified by a sample of cross-border donor egg recipients – are articulated in relation to notions of ‘choice’ and what I call ‘biodesirability’, and how such notions cannot be exempt from its specific post-socialist European context. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

One consequence of the legal diversity in Europe is that legal restrictions on treatments can be evaded by going abroad. Many French lesbian couples and single women are crossing the border to Belgium because they are denied access to treatments with donor sperm at home. This is the first qualitative research study into the experiences and moral perspectives of these women. Between June 2012 and May 2013, 11 lesbian couples and 2 single women were recruited at the department of reproductive medicine at Ghent University Hospital. The data from the semi-structured interviews was analysed using inductive thematic analysis. The results show that these women face several additional challenges to the already difficult process of cross-border treatment. Before they can start the treatment, they can only obtain information from the internet or from stories of friends who also went abroad for treatment with donor sperm. During the treatment, they need to find local clinics or physicians to monitor their cycle. Several women managed to game the French system to ensure partial reimbursement for their treatment when they were successful in finding a physician who was willing to prescribe drugs and perform tests. Most women had difficulties justifying their absence from work. In general these women felt that they were discriminated against and that their rights were not protected because of who they are. In that regard, the lack of legal recognition of the genetically unrelated partner in their country was particularly hard to cope with for the lesbian couples. These women have to develop many different strategies to deal with the difficulties they face during cross-border reproductive care. It is concluded that it is very important that they find a physician who is willing to support them in their ‘baby project’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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