The Online World of Surrogacy

Pregnant Metaphors and Surrogate Meanings: Bringing the Ethnography of Pregnancy and Surrogacy into Conversation in Israel and Beyond

“…Like Maya, Israeli surrogates were quick to emphasize that the baby they carried for their couple was not “created from me,” “is a stranger,” “is not mine.” They were particularly adamant in stressing that the baby did not share “their blood” and were nearly all horrified by the idea of traditional surrogacy, which they believed would be “giving away my own child.” Thus, even though they literally did share blood with the fetus, they described their distance from the fetus by referring to blood as a term for lineage rather than actual blood. The dominance of this geneticist cultural script among Israeli surrogates could be contrasted with that of others, such as those described by Berend () for U.S. women. In her study, surrogates also believed that gestating the surrogate baby did not make it their own, but they were also much less likely to claim their distance from the baby based on genetics.…”

“…Thus, even though they literally did share blood with the fetus, they described their distance from the fetus by referring to blood as a term for lineage rather than actual blood. The dominance of this geneticist cultural script among Israeli surrogates could be contrasted with that of others, such as those described by Berend (2016) for U.S. women. In her study, surrogates also believed that gestating the surrogate baby did not make it their own, but they were also much less likely to claim their distance from the baby based on genetics.…”

“…The recent stream of ethnographic studies on surrogacy continue earlier ethnographically bound attempts to complicate our understanding of surrogacy beyond exploitation and commodification. While two recent studies have explored surrogacy in the United States (see Berend ; Jacobsen ), the most ethnographic attention has been focused on India (Deomampo ; Pande ; Rudrappa ; Vora ). The dominant theoretical orientation of both Jacobsen's U.S. study as well as the Indian studies is the framing of surrogacy as work; a common argument is that surrogacy can be understood as paid “biological labor” as well as “emotional work.”…”

Donantes de ovocitos: análisis comparativo de dos muestras de Argentina y España sobre perfil de donantes, motivaciones y anonimato

“…Con la creciente normalización de la reproducción asistida, el anhelo de mater-paternidad se ha convertido en la base "natural" del parentesco (Mamo, 2007;Strathern, 1992). La participación de terceros (Berend, 2016a(Berend, , 2016b en la reproducción asistida recibe respuestas legales variadas tanto en la Unión Europea como en el continente americano. En algunos países existen restricciones legales que incluyen: límites en la edad, en la elección sexual (heterosexualidad obligatoria) y matrimonial, prohibición de acceso para parejas igualitarias, prohibiciones en la donación de gametos o la gestación por sustitución (Inhorn y Patrizio, 2012), distintos posicionamientos en torno al anonimato y al posible contacto con los y las donantes.…”

Cross-border reproductive care in the USA: who comes, why do they come, what do they purchase?

“…Structured into the US surrogacy 'journey' is sustained communication and interaction between intended parents and surrogates, which is another successful recruitment tool for the US surrogacy industry (Berend, 2016). Stuvoy (2018) found Norwegian intended parents choosing the USA (or Canada) as a destination site for surrogacy over India, where such interactions are not encouraged or sustained.…”