Altruistic help or taking advantage of the situation? Social representations of surrogate motherhood

Abstract

Concerning Europe, the lay public, mainly in Central regions, still lacks information about what surrogacy is and how the process works in practice. It is one of the most controversial methods of assisted reproduction precisely because it goes against traditional social norms and ideas about the conception of life. The main aim of our study was to map the social representations of lay people that are formed in internet discussions. We focused on discussion forums over a time span of the last 10 years, from 2013 to 2022. We were also interested in whether perceived risks or benefits formed the core of social representations. Through a reflexive thematic analysis, we identified two distinct constructions of social representations of surrogacy, finding that value settings in terms of liberalism and conservatism appear to have the greatest influence on the anchoring and objectification of surrogacy.