[1] See the works of Michel Odent, Frederick Lamaze, Clare Scropetto, Anni Daulter, Anita Regalia (among others). A midwife from Sardinien testifies about the easy pre-medicalization birthing process: "An obstetrician who started working as an assistant in the '60s remembers that she assisted about 360 deliveries in six years, of which two were hospitalized because of the fetal presentation. She had to perform episiotomy in just one case, rarely used spartina, and never ossitocin" (Centro studi 1985, 4; my translation, as for all the other quoted texts not originally in English). Episiotomy and lacerations were avoided by massage with oil and by the midwife sustaining the perineum with her hand.
[2] At the IRIS Association Conference "Volti e risvolti della paura" (Milan 12.12.2014) the tale of a midwife was reported: "The gynecologist peered in and saw the woman in labor on all fours: 'Put her back in bed in a civilized position!' he told me" (in the original: "in una posizione da cristiani," an Italian set phrase).
[3] Thanks to the Indian state that from 1992 has been incentivizing medical tourism by subsidies to high-tech clinics, while the majority of the population cannot access health care.
[4] Also Silvia Federici wrote in 1999: "We have also seen the development of baby farms, in which children are produced specifically for export, and the increasing employment of 'third world women' as surrogate mothers. Surrogacy, like adoption, allows women from the 'advanced' capitalist countries to avoid interrupting their career or jeopardizing their health to have a child. In turn, 'Third World' governments benefit from the fact that the sale of each child brings foreign currency to their coffers; and the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund tacitly approve of this practice, because the sale of children serves to correct 'demographic excesses' and is in harmony with the principle that debtor nations must export all their resources from forests to human beings" (Federici 2012, 72).
[5] Quoted from the homepage of www.motheroutlaws.org accessed 14.11. 2014.
[6] Respectively: gestation pour autrui, maternità di sostituzione or maternità per procura, gestación subrogada, παρένθετη μητρότητα, פונדקאית אם (em pundekait), Leihmutterschaft, draagmoederschap.
[7] In France the number of "accouchements sous X" has risen, from 588 in 2005 to about 700 in 2010. The birth mother can step back from her decision for a period of two months (Villeneuve-Gokalp 2011).
[8] It is often claimed that surrogacy agreements are ancient and that they have always been practiced in a common way, but I did not find traces other than (or before) this mention, plus the stories reported by Noel Keane (see further). The famous Biblical episodes were not agreements but slave exploitation.
[9] He also wrote a book about surrogacy: Keane, Noel and Dennis Breo Keane, The Surrogate Mother. Everest Publishers, 1981. In Keane's obituary in the New York Times, his son declared that he arranged the birth of 600 children, some of them named after him by the grateful parents (http://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/28/nyregion/noel-keane-58-lawyer-in-surrogate-mother-cases-is-dead.html).
[10] This often does not happen without shame because of the taboos surrounding masturbation. Rene Almeling (2011, 99 ff.) recounts other difficulties, such as the bodily discipline required by sperm donation in the US, to which donors must commit at least once a week. They also relate feelings of objectification.
[11] Twenty per cent of the women in a sample considered birthing pain as unbearable, 30% as severe, 35% moderate and 15% light (research quoted by Goberna 2013, 82. Original: Bonica, J. J. and J. S. McDonald "The pain of childbirth," in J. J. Bonica, The management of pain, 19902, Lea & Febiger, Philadelphia, pp. 1313-1343.
[12] See also the detailed discussion of his arguments by Herbert Krimmel (1983, 12 ff.).
[13] The equality discourse pervades many "homoparenting" associations. They request: sperm donations for lesbians who want to become mothers and surrogate mothers for gay men who want to become fathers. It is a weak argument, and if challenged the answer is to back it up with sexist verbal violence (Famiglie Arcobaleno mailing list, 2007, on file with author).
[14] The dependency tie is indeed resented in the "sexual family." Hostility by the father to the mother/child relationship often occurs even in couples who had a good relationship before the arrival of a baby.
[15] Reality is a discredited word in contemporary social science, but we do not need an absolute concept. What is enough is a pragmatic and "incremental" concept, that is, the process of knowing has the aim of getting us closer to grasping reality, without the pretention of describing the truth once and for all.
[16] Or rather "became a zygote." Paola Tabet (2014, see also Martin 1991) questions the choice of words describing the embryo as a "fecundated egg," and with reason. This choice of language conveys passivity of the egg, as the feminine part that gets "fertilized" by the active sperm, the male agent, but in fact what happens is a fusion of the two gametes. This, argues Tabet, resonates with the attribution of fecundity only to women, as it is current in demographic discourse. In this case, I just wanted to highlight the vicissitude of the woman's egg.
[17] Tribunale di Roma, Ordinanza 17.2.2000.
[18] "When forced to acknowledge that women's genetic contribution is equal to men's genetic contribution, Western patriarchy could have foundered. But the central concept of patriarchy, the importance of the seed, was kept by extending it to women. Valuing the seed of women, the genetic material women also have, extends to women some of the privileges of patriarchy. That is, when the significance of woman's seed is acknowledged in her relationship with her children, women too have paternity rights in their children. […] Children are, based on the seed, presumptively 'half his, half hers'- and might as well have grown in the backyard. Women do not gain their rights to their children in this society as mothers, but as father-equivalents, sources of seed" (Rothman 1989, 91-92).
[19] It is affirmed that 95% of the contracts in the US are for gestational surrogacy (Sanger 2007, 127 n.118).
[20] "Lesbian surrogacy" is a misnomer, sometimes used when a couple of women decide to split and mix their contributions to have a baby: one gives the ovum while the other undergoes the pregnancy, so both can have a biological connection to their child. Clinics rather call it "reciprocal in vitro fertilization," that is another misnomer. Some lesbian couples have tried to have their family recognized from birth in courts proving that one woman is the birth mother and the other a genetic contributor: it has worked in Israel in 2012, where the woman who donated an egg to her partner could become the second legal parent to their child (Shakargy 2013, 245).
[21] When I talk and write about psychoanalysis I usually quote Meyer (2006). Despite the sensationalist title (The black book of psychoanalysis) it is a scholarly work, demonstrating the unusefulness and the damage of this nonscientific theory. But some good can always be found everywhere.
[22] Quoted by Krimmel 1992, 27). Original in Katha Pollitt, "Contracts and Apple Pie, The Strange Case of Baby M," The Nation, 682-84, 23.5.1987. See also Field 1988, 5.
[23] It is not a slip of the tongue but political strategy. This report to the European Parliament has been compiled by a group of lawyers and legal experts who find the contract the best possible configuration for surrogacy, using sympathetic language about the very few countries that have introduced its enforceability, while considering "backward" all other possibilities. They are clearly advocating the process of commodification of babies, as the above example demonstrates, and talk without doubt of a true parentage of the newborn by its intended parents: "It is difficult to predict the evolution of the jurisprudence even if there is a clear tendency in favour of the recognition of the child's parentage" (European Parliament 2013, 119).
[24] Interesting lapsus. The legislators could not really bring themselves together to clearly affirm that a child born from a woman is not hers.
[25] http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=2613&ChapterID=59 accessed 15..3.2015.
[26] Rene Almeling reports a funny anecdote: "when a new employee at Western Sperm Bank excitedly told a donor that a recipient had become pregnant with his samples, she said it was like 'somebody hit him with a huge ball in the middle of his head. He just went blank, and he was shocked.' During his next visit, the sperm donor explained, 'I didn't really think about the fact that there were gonna be pregnancies.' The donor manager described this state of mind as 'not uncommon'" (Almeling 2011, 78).
[27] It also seems that it enhances the risk of a mild form of ovarian cancer later in life: "Dutch researchers studied more than 19,000 women age 40 and younger who had I.V.F. and about 6,000 who had visited fertility clinics without having the procedure. After 15 years of follow-up, they found that women who had undergone I.V.F. were more than four times as likely than those who had not to develop borderline ovarian cancer, a malignancy that is treatable and survivable" (Bakalar 2011). The original study concludes with a call for further monitoring (van Leeuwen 2011, 1).
[28] The Slow Medicine movement is trying to change this attitude from within medical practice.
[29] Phyllis Chesler is also critical of this denomination for the opposite reason: "it is acceptable to restrict references to parenthood to the 'intended parents' as the other parties involved are only providers of either raw materials or services (in fact, surrogacy is the vehicle whereby the 'intended parents' realize their parenthood, which is what is 'intended,' presumably, by all the parties); finally, it is acceptable for all parties to engage in the transaction because it is not commercial and does not reify the children themselves as transactional objects (they are always-already the children of their intended parents)" (Chesler 1988, 16).
[30] I find useful the methodology described by Marvin Harris in Cultural materialism (1980), with the emic-etic distinction carried over from language studies to social analysis: it separates the point of view of the observer from the one of the observed, and ideas from behavioral facts, that scientific procedures always try to establish. All fields of studies are therefore legitimated, but with different meanings: studying ideas about social reality does not mean studying social reality as it happens, nor can it give reality its true—or better—meaning. See also the works of the Swedish anthropologist Alf Hornborg (e.g. 2001).
[31] Advertising banner at the top of the page www.allaboutsurrogacy.com (accessed 5.1.2013). An article sympathetic to commercial surrogacy by Agency 4 Solutions is entitled: "SURROGACY: Your Bun, Her Oven…Is It Right For You?" 29.9. 2008 (http://community.barefootandpregnant.com/fertility/surrogacy_your_bun_her_ovenis_it_right_for_you/ accessed 19.12.2014).
[32] "Intent without biology contributes little to the creation of the objective entity known as a child" (Rae 1994, 100).
[33] Nearly half a century later, the invention of the artificial womb that Firestone envisioned has not yet been accomplished, despite attempts (a Japanese team for example works with acrylic and parts of living tissues). Yoshinori Kuwabara, chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Juntendo University in Tokyo made headlines with his team's experiments with goats' fetuses (http://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/29/magazine/the-artificial-womb-is-born.html, accessed 18.12.2014).
[34] Another possibility for infertile women that is currently being developed is a uterus transplant. The first baby from a transplanted womb was born in Sweden in September 2014. It had to be delivered prematurely, as the mother, a 36 year old woman born without uterus, had developed preeclampsia, possibly as an effect of the immunosuppressive treatment she had to avoid rejection of the new organ. The uterus came from a live donor, an older woman (Brännström et al. 2014, see also http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141007092110.htm accessed 1.12.2014).
[35] "La madre dimenticata," Italian for "The forgotten mother" is the title of a short contribution that I wrote for Orgoglio e pregiudizio a booklet edited in 2010 by the feminist collective "Quaderni Viola" lead by Lidia Cirillo. The piece was censored and excluded from publication without even informing me, as "it showed only one side of the debate," as I came to know later. I haven't changed my mind since, and I believe that feminism is to be on women's side—in this case refusing to consider biological motherhood as something different from the physical gestational experience.
[36] Martha Field, who has written in 1988 an excellent book "dissecting" the surrogacy debate, proposes a cut off point much closer to the birth in cases of surrogacy, with no possibility for the birth mother to get the baby back once she has handed it over.
[37] Greek authorities have a nonchalant attitude to parent-child relationships: they take newborns away from sans-papier mothers, as they cannot legally recongnize their children.
[38] But Nature speaks for herself in my pamphlet L'ecologia spiegata agli esseri umani (Ecology explained to humans), available in Italian at www.danieladanna.it.
[39] For a discussion of "physiological" vs "natural" concepts of delivery, see Spandrio, Regalia and Bestetti 2014, 25 ff.
[40] Intersex individuals are also born in species with sexual reproduction.
[41] The School of Barbiana: Letter to a teacher [1967], 31 ( http://www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/LTAT_Final.pdf accessed 20.12.2014 accessed 2.10.2014).
[42] In fact the possibility of anonymous parturition was given by the Napoleonic Code to avoid infanticide when the mother knew that the baby was a result of adultery.
[43] Anticipating the legal analyses of chapter 2, I'd like to quote a Dutch tribunal that in 2006 affirmed "that there was no close personal relationship between the man and the unborn child, since such a close personal relationship can only come into existence after the child's birth" (Vonk 2010, 140, summing up Rechtbank Assen, 15 June 2006, LJN AY7247).
[44] Barbara Katz Rothman identifies the importance given to genetic contribution with patriarchy itself: "This is the ultimate meaning of patriarchy for mothers: Seeds are precious. Mothers are fungible. Today we are more familiar with the nonbiological services that we hire from mother-substitutes. We hire baby-sitters, day-care workers, nannies, housekeepers, to 'watch' our children. The tasks are the traditional tasks of mothering - feeding, tending, caring, the whole bundle of social and psychological and physical tasks involved in the care of young children. When performed by mothers, we call this mothering. When performed by fathers, we have sometimes called it fathering, sometimes parenting, sometimes helping the mother. When performed by hired hands, we called it unskilled" (Katz Rothman 1989, 97). She rightly advocates for visitation rights of sacked baby-sitters.
[45] This is admitted by Jean Zermatten (2010, 485), Director of the International Institute for the Rights of the Child and Vice-Chairperson of the United Nations Committee for the Rights of the Child: "If we analyse the best interest principle as a whole, there is no particular explanation of its application. It does not outline any particular duties, nor does it state precise rules," as every child is different. Then he admits that what is applied are the theories most in vogue (see also Fineman 1991, proposing the primary-caretaker rule).
[46] I agree with Stephanie Lynn-Budin (2011, 91) that "all association between children and women after the cessation of breast feeding (or, following Bolen, parturition) are entirely cultural," adding that breast-feeding, which is undoubtedly better for children in a normal situation, must also be a woman's choice and right (See also Katz 2000).
[47] An Irish verdict recites: "Under Irish law the 'natural mother' is given automatic guardianship and a personal right to custody of the child under Article 40 of the Constitution. As guardian the mother retains full responsibility for the child unless this is permanently removed by an adoption order. She is presumed to act in the best interest of the child and the court is reluctant to intervene" (Harding 2013, 225).
[48] Fineman comments the international trend of joint custody based on a misapplied equality principle: "Custody policy at divorce reflect the determination that parents are assumed equally entitled to custody regardless of the 'mothering' they did (or did not do) during the marriage." (Fineman 1995, 71). In Italy legal recognition as father of a newborn was granted to an ex boyfriend whom the mother denounced for domestic violence (Danna 2009, 127-130).
[49] It is understood that if the parental powers to which a child is subject are misused, the state should and will intervene with its social services on behalf of it. But in the normal upbringing, children are dependent on their parents' choices by definition.
[50] Relazione al progetto preliminare del Libro I [of the Italian civil code], quoted by Alessandro P. Scarso, in Trattato di diritto delle successioni e donazioni, Giuffré 2009, edited by Giovanni Bondini, p. 286. In the exquisite original Italian, it was the worry that: "giovani inesperti e doviziosi" would be chased after by "donne perdute e senza scrupoli."
[51] This resembles the situation in India, where surrogates are never told about medical issues: "The surrogates interviewed at both the sites commented frequently on the medication regimen that was prescribed for them. Since most of them were not informed of this prior to their decision to enter into the arrangement, and because often assurances were made that the surrogacy pregnancy would be like their earlier ones, surrogates had no idea about the levels of medication they were required to take; this was not something that they had considered at the time of entering into the arrangement" (Sama 2012, 80).
[52] Latashia Alexander's instructions to fellow surrogates show her belief, spread in the US, in the power of rational prevision to program one's feelings, even in dramatic circumstances: "Who will hold the baby(ies) first? As some IP's would want the child passed to them first, you need to be on the same page regarding where the baby(ies) will go after, make sure that you know beforehand so that there are no hurt feelings in the end" (Alexander 2006, 77).
[53] See the One at a time webpage: http://www.oneatatime.org.uk/372.htm (accessed 20.12.2014).
[54] Unfortunately not everywhere, despite the CEDAW recognized the reproductive right to access to safe procedures to interrupt a pregnancy, when the pregnant woman does not accept the life conceived. The embryo is inextricably connected to her body, it is still not a separate being, so it is the woman that can and must choose whether to care for and nourish it or separate it from her womb interrupting the pregnancy.
[55] Embryo freezing is employed in cases of non synchronization of cycles, or if the same woman is subject to egg retrieval and implant, as the hormones used for egg retrieval do not favor pregnancy.
[56] See original text for the numerous references.
[57] And also her stress. Field (1988, 89 ff.) quotes work by Melvin Zax, Monika Lukesch, Gerhard Rottmann, Peter Hepper, Brent Logan and many others, on the effect on the well-being of the newborn and on the learning capacities of the fetus of stress, the desire to have a child, and other factors active during pregnancy.
[58] But we are constituted of a human body and a myriad of bacteria, that the mother passes over even to the fetus before birth (Gilbert 2014).
[59] The COST network "Building Intrapartum Research Through Health - an interdisciplinary whole system approach to understanding and contextualising physiological labour and birth (BIRTH)" is calling attention to the best practices. I thank Ramon Escuriet Peiro, Claudia Meier Magistretti, Eleni Hadjigeorgiou, Ema Hresanova, Mário Santos, Irene Maffi, Deirdre Daly, Josefina Goberna Tricas, Sigfríður Inga Karlsdóttir who have kindly sent me updated information on delivery practices.
[60] Ann Oakley wrote in the same year that: "The possible hazards of induction of labour, even using the most up-to-date technologies, include iatrogenic prematurity, and increased use of other interventions (e.g. epidural analgesia), fetal distress (as a result of oxytocin stimulation), neonatal jaundice, greater labour pain and unhappiness in the mother resulting from her passive role in the delivery of her baby" (Oakley 1986, 207). This is still confirmed today (e.g. Spandrio, Regalia and Bestetti 2014).
[61] For an imaginative contrast, see the description of the Palace of Birth in the dystopic novel Egalia's Daughters. A satire of the sexes, by Gerd Brantenberg (The Journeymen Press, London 1985, Norwegian original 1977).
[62] Original reference: A. Cartwright: The dignity of labour? A study of childbearing and induction, London, Tavistock 1979, p. 107.
[63] Original quotation in Chadeyron P.A., La machine et l'obstetricien, in Ginecologia psicosomatica & psicoprofilassi ostetrica : evoluzione e prospettive. Atti del 1. Congresso congiunto delle Società italiana e francese di psicoprofilassi ostetrica. Venezia, maggio 1976, edited by R. Cerutti. Piccin, Padova 1976.
[64] But the story of Kim Cotton, the first "surrogate mother" in the UK points in fact to the opposite (Cotton and Winn 1986): She had delivered her first child in an hospital in the mid-'70s and was so horrified by the experience that for her second baby she insisted on having a home birth, mostly uncommon at that time. She recalls that it was so unusual that 3-4 obstetricians wanted to assist her. But when she volunteered to be a surrogate, she underwrote an agreement with an obligatory hospital delivery, wrongly supposed to be safer. Israeli surrogates, for whom surrogacy is a job, mostly choose a C-section fearing to emotionally bond with the baby at birth (Teman 2010).
[65] Reality is different, as it has been denounced since the '70s: "Then we are administered all kinds of drugs, very often against our will, and must spend our energy on the delivery table turning away from persistent offerings of gas. Our movements and choice of position are restricted, and we are most often forced to deliver strapped down to the modern cold, hard delivery table which instinctively feels too high from the floor. And then after a delivery including numerous potent drugs, perhaps the use of forceps and a compulsory episiotomy, our child is taken from us to be observed by strangers in a nursery full of screaming babies. At this point, if the mother is undrugged, she is overwhelmed by maternal feelings. She wants to examine, touch and hold this baby she has waited so long to see. Instead the baby is detached from the sounds, smells, tastes and closeness that are her/his birthright. The father often gets his first look though a pane of glass. Where is there room for love? How can mother, father, and child share the true bond of these moments so vital to their mutual growth?" (Frediani 1982).
[66] But the "bonding theory," an analogy to the imprint process in some other species, is discredited. See Mother-Infant Bonding: A Scientific Fiction by Diane E. Eyer (1992).
[67] In casual meetings with strangers, pregnant women get routinely admonished, advised, and of course scolded by strangers (The VOICE Group 2014).
[68] http://www.adoptionbirthmothers.com/musings-of-the-lame-an-adoption-blog/ accessed 10.1.2015.
[69] E-mail correspondence, 9.12.2014, on file with author and with permission to quote.
[70] In her book about the Baby M case, Phyllis Chesler unmasks the political role of the "experts" and of the ideology of "civilization" itself: "according to the mental-health experts, Mary Beth could do no right. They used everything she said and did against her, they disapproved of her because she had bonded with Baby M—as if this proved that she was no better than an animal. It's as if these experts were nineteenth-century missionaries and Mary Beth a particularly stubborn native who refused to convert to Christianity, and what's more, refused to let them plunder her natural resources—not without a fight" (Chesler 1988, 26).
[71] The case was rather complicated: "Unfortunately, relations deteriorated between the two sides. Mark [the intended father] learned that Anna [the gestational surrogate] had not disclosed she had suffered several stillbirths and miscarriages. Anna felt Mark and Crispina [the intended parents] did not do enough to obtain the required insurance policy. She also felt abandoned during an onset of premature labor in June" (Johnson v. Calvert).
[72] Some legal experts—but not many—recognize it: "As far as the child is concerned, she [the mother who gives birth] is the only mother that he or she has had any relationship with. The intending mother/child connection exists only in her mind, and in that sense, it is a one-way relationship. It is difficult to see how there can be a relationship that could not possibly be acknowledged by one of the parties in the relationship" (Rae 1994, 99).
[73] In the US (and elsewhere) markets in babies should be against the law even if children are not viewed as commodities by the buyers: "However the fact remains that [in surrogacy] children are still being bought and sold, something that is inherently immoral and in violation of the Thirteenth Amendment, irrespective of the surrounding circumstances" (Rae 1994, 51).
[74] Tribunale civile di Roma, sez XI, 14 febbraio 2000, giudice C. Schettini Contratto in genere. Contratto di sostituzione di maternità in determinati casi. Validità (http://www.diritto.it/sentenze/magistratord/roma14_02_2000.html accessed 20.12.2014).
[75] See in Teman (2010, 76) how much the Israeli surrogates apply rationality to detach themselves from any feeling towards the "contract child" in their womb. Three lustra later, Shalev must be really proud of them.
[76] But the contract itself can be seen as distorting rationality: "A surrogate contract is inherently manipulative, since the very form of the contract invokes commercial norms which, whether upheld by the law or by social custom only, imply that the mother should feel guilty and irresponsible for loving her own child" (Anderson 1990, 89).
[77] Shalev nevertheless presents herself as a feminist, in the wake of the disparaging opinion of pregnancy expressed by de Beauvoir and Firestone.
[78] The cases might be very different from each other due to different states' laws in the US, but a synthesized datum is that all the 12 litigations in the '80s and early '90s were sentenced in favor of the commissioning parents: 11 couples and one father (Spitz 1996, 70, quoting the Center for Surrogate Parenting Newsletter, Spring 1993).
[79] "An action to establish the parent-child relationship between the intended parent or parents and the child as to a child conceived pursuant to an assisted reproduction agreement for gestational carriers may be filed before the child's birth, or the county where medical procedures pursuant to the agreement are to be performed. A copy of the assisted reproduction agreement for gestational carriers shall be lodged in the court action filed for the purpose of establishing the parent-child relationship" (AB-1217 Surrogacy agreements).
[80] There have been some cases in Canadian courts, too, see "Who is a Parent? Not a Simple Question!" by Stephanie Laskoski ( http://www.lawnow.org/parent-simple-question/ accessed 15.3.2015).
[81] In her review of Teman's work (2010), Barbara Katz Rothman (2012) corrects the Israeli terminology of "intended mother" in "purchasing mother."
[82] The Greek provisions only partially satisfy Aristides N. Hatzis (2009, 2010), who studied at the University of Chicago Law School and did his PhD under the supervision of Richard A. Posner (see his proposals to establish markets in babies: Landes and Posner 1978, Posner 1987 and 1989). Hatzis deplores the cap on compensation to the breeder (my translation) and the restriction of surrogacy to residents in Greece. In times of global markets, this makes little sense indeed.
[83] In Greece surrogacy occurs both in legal and illegal ways: "In November 2006, after my lecture at the Panhellenic Conference of Midwives many of them approached me to inform me that they have witnessed not only commercial but also unreported surrogacies in their hospitals (both private and public). According to them it is quite easy to have an unreported surrogacy: the surrogate gives birth to the child in the hospital and the certificate is issued under the name of the commissioning mother posing as the biological mother. Some of them even insisted that unreported surrogacies are more frequent than the reported ones" (Hatzis 2010, 11, n. 15). This corruption, I believe, would not have happened without the legitimation of contracts in 2002, which gave infertile people the idea of the feasibility of this option.
[84] The initiative is recounted in this way: "On November 22, 2000 the Minister of Justice, at the time Mihail Stathopoulos, a leading academic of Law at Athens Law School, and a man with a progressive mind, appointed a Committee to evaluate the effects of the RTs [reproductive technologies] and genetics to family law. The result of this project was the formation and the passing of the Law 3089/2002 on December 19, 2002" (European Parliament 2013, 279). The Parliament modified it prohibiting financial gains and forbidding traditional surrogacy. The Report to the European Parliament praises the law disguising its meaning with a mountain of lies: "First and foremost, it aims to protect the rights and interests of any resulting child [which to the contrary is not to be separated from its mother], and secondly the individuals' right to personal freedom and autonomy [but for the breeder's], and their right to procreate [which doubtfully exists for the infertile, and most certainly not at the expense of other persons]. Consequently, [the biggest lies follow] Laws 3089/2002 and 3305/2005 are in harmony with the national legislation in general, as well as the moral principles, rights and obligations incorporated into the Greek Constitution, while at the same time they are consistent with the European and international laws and inter-countries' agreements on Human Rights and on the protection of and respect for the children's welfare" (European Parliament 2013, 277-8). They are not: international conventions affirm the right to be brought up by one's family and, on the side of the mother, the protection of her family life.
[85] Controls that are only formal are not an obstacle to all kinds of arrangements: "A former client of mine, an American citizen, asked my opinion about having a child through surrogacy in Greece. When I informed him on the conditions and the prohibitions he was amazed. In his correspondence with a fertility clinic in Greece the issue of non residency never came up and the problem of the surrogate mother was not an issue. The fertility clinic even had a catalogue with possible candidates" (Hatzis 2010, 11, n. 16).
[86] Article 1458. The transfer of fertilized ova to another woman and pregnancy by her is allowed by a court authorization issued before the transfer, given that there is a written and, without any financial benefit, agreement between the involved parties, meaning the persons wishing to have a child and the surrogate mother and in case that the latter is married of her spouse, as well. The court authorization is issued following an application of the woman who wants to have a child, provided that evidence is adduced not only in regard with the fact that she is medically unable to conceive but also with the fact that the surrogate mother is in good health condition and able to conceive" (http://policy.mofcom.gov.cn/english/flaw!fetch.action?libcode=flaw&id=28fb9603-75e9-4691-a960-36b0d9a2c624&classcode=330 accessed 26.12.2014).
[87] http://policy.mofcom.gov.cn/english/flaw!fetch.action?libcode=flaw&id=28fb9603-75e9-4691-a960-36b0d9a2c624&classcode=330 accessed 26.12.2014.
[88] As translated by www.familylaw.com (original: http://zakon4.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2947-14 both accessed 20.1.2015). This and the other typos in the quoted sentences are identical in the original.
[89] Also Scott Rae writes against the interpretation in terms of "service": "The child that is born out of a physician's expertise has no relationship to the physician, and the physician has no claim to any parental rights. Likewise, the adoption attorney is being paid so that a couple can obtain a child. But it is not the attorney's child that they are obtaining. This is not the case with surrogacy. The child for which the money is being paid is the legal child of the surrogate, and the fee is paying for much more than just gestational services" (Rae 1994, 52).
[90] Family Code of Russia, 1995, s. 51, para 4(2) "a married couple that has given its consent in written form to implantation of an embryo into another woman for the purpose of its gestation, can be registered as the child's parents only with the consent of this woman (surrogate mother)" (quoted by Khazova 2013, 313).
[91] Christina Weis, doing a PhD with participant observation of surrogacy in Russia, affirms that it is not practised only in big cities but throughout Russia. Surrogate mothers are mostly Russians, but also Ukrainians, Moldovans and Belarussians, who come to Russia for surrogacy (Weis 2014 and email correspondence on file with author).
[92] Usha Rengachary Smerdon writes: "Critics challenge the Guidelines on numerous grounds. Commentators note that the Guidelines reinforce social prejudices toward infertility without stressing the need for the prevention of infertility. Informed consent is dealt with in a vague and cursory manner and is not even made mandatory under the Guidelines," as the birth certificate shall be in the name of the intended parents (Smerdon 2008, 41).
[93] Section 5, section 14, and section 14(3) of the Human Assisted Reproductive Technology Act 2004 (all quoted in Achmad 2013, 297-8).
[94] It looks like nobody controls, though: "I was a gs, so the baby wasn't mine. from what i understand, hubby and I automatically are considered the "parents"for the bc. My IF had KY attorneys go to court with an affadavit stating that i wasn't the mother, I signed all my rights away, and named him as the father. Later, they are using MA lawyers to do a step-parent adoption for my IM, since she and I are both not the "mother". It was an egg donor. Oh, and this was all a FET too. […] The philosophy is that my surrobabe was mine, and what I wanted to do with her when I left was up to me. They said they're just trying to cover their butts in case something happened. (I guess like if I changed my mind)" (posted on http://www.surromomsonline.com/support/showthread.php?156123-Surrogacy-laws-in-Kentucky11.11.2009, accessed 15.2.2015).
[95] Law Library - American Law and Legal Information 2014: in Re Baby M - Further Readings - Child, Court, Contract, and Whitehead - JRank Articles http://law.jrank.org/pages/4604/Baby-M-in-Re.html#ixzz3Mvs3vGGB accessed 22.12.2014.
[96] Quoted by Krimmel (1992, 4-5) and still valid, see http://www.thestork.com/expense.html accessed 21.1.2015. See also the legal dispute in Michigan about the application to surrogacy of a similar provision (Parker 1982).
[97] It is also used to refer to the period when the child is raised by the intended parents but the parental responsibility lies (also) with the surrogate mother, during the reflection period. Emily Jackson (2006, 65) claims that "This sort of uncertainty, even if relatively short-lived, is clearly not in the best interest of the child," without providing any concrete case where this has resulted detrimental to it.
[98] To contrast this assimilation of fertile and infertile, Martha Field (1988, 47) notes: "In one sense, the state has a rule for all—that all can have children naturally but not for hire—and that rule is probably not vulnerable to attack under the equal protection clause. Even though the couple is hurt by that rule, it is not unreasonable for the state to distinguish between pregnancy achieved naturally and pregnancy for hire, if they are substantially different things."
[99] Here's the original Spanish: "Art. 4, § 2—Toda persona tiene derecho a decidir de manera libre, responsable e informada sobre el número y el espaciamiento de sus hijos" (§ 1 is the affirmation of gender equality: "El varón y la mujer son iguales ante la ley. Esta protegerá la organización y el desarrollo de la familia" ).
[100] Tribunale civile di Roma, sez XI, 14 febbraio 2000, giudice C. Schettini Contratto in genere. Contratto di sostituzione di maternità in determinati casi. Validità http://www.diritto.it/sentenze/magistratord/roma14_02_2000.html accessed 20.12.2014.
[101] The questions were: "In general, do you approve or disapprove of people using gestational surrogacy to have children?" 59% of the sample answered approve, and 31% disapprove; "Do you think it should be legal or not legal to pay a surrogate?" with 54% for legalization of payment, and 26% against (British public: legalise paid surrogacy https://yougov.co.uk/news/2014/08/08/british-public-legalise-commercial-surrogacies/ accessed 28,2,2015).
[102] Jo Knowsley "Surrogate mother says 'Sorry, but I'm keeping your babies'," Mail on Sunday, 17.12. 2006 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-423125/Surrogate-mother-says-Sorry-Im-keeping-babies.html accessed 2.2.2015.
[103] Hoogtechnologisch draagmoederschap, Richtlijn Nederlandse Veereniging voor Obstetrie en Gynaecologie, n. 18, January 1999 (http://nvog-documenten.nl/uploaded/docs/richtlijnen_pdf/18_hoog_draagmoeder.pdf accessed 28.1.2015).
[104] "Thailand's parliament approves bill banning commercial surrogacy. Decision follows several surrogacy scandals this year including Australian couple who left behind baby with Down's syndrome," The Guardian, 28.11.2014 (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/28/thailand-parliament-bill-ban-commercial-surrogacy-baby-gammy accessed 20.1.2015). "Thailand bans commercial surrogacy for foreigners," BBC Asia News 20.2.2015 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-31546717 accessed 23.2.2015).
[105] One of them was amused to hear that I was working on a research on surrogate motherhood: "This theme is fun!" she commented. Then she described with admiration the large amount of money that was given to a certain group to elaborate their international law proposal on the funny theme.
[106] Curiously, a legal scholar from the US proposes to resolve the question of transnational surrogacy with deference: "A simple solution […] is for the countries-of-origin of the intended parents to give full force and effect to the US court orders and judgments establishing the parentage of the intended parents and terminating the parental rights of the surrogate (and her husband, if any). This would be done under the principle of international comity," which the author's note incredibly explains so: "not as a matter of obligation but of deference and respect" (Snyder 2013, 387).
[107] "Help and advice re: surrogacy in USA" 17/08/14, 19:20. Hello,We are probably at the end of our IVF journey and considering surrogacy and adoption.We are a little worried about surrogacy in the UK due to the time it may take to find a host and the legal issues of not being seen as the mother and father to the courts.I wonder if the USA would be quicker and offer better legal protection?" (http://www.fertilityfriends.co.uk/ accessed 13.12.2014).
[108] These conditions make people break the law also in their own country. What I find the most bizarre of all stories came under judgment of a Moscow court in 2011. A woman ordered nephews by the dozen to compensate for the loss of her son: "a 58-year-old woman, whose son had died from cancer, applied to the medical clinic for IVF with the use of the donor's oocytes and her deceased son's sperm, to be carried out with the subsequent transfer of embryos to a surrogate mother. To be confident in the success of her undertaking, the woman got two surrogates involved, and each of them delivered two babies" (Khazova 2013, 316-7). But the elderly lady could not be registered as the mother of any of them, as this is possible only for a married couple, so the babies live in a legal limbo.
[109] See some solved cases in Trimmings and Beaumont 2013, 514 ff.). But there are no data: their survey on transnational surrogacy gave scant results due to nonparticipation of informants: just one intermediary described the 31 cases handled by him in the course of four and a half years (Trimmings and Beaumont 2013, 464 ff.).
[110] The last document by The Hague Conference, eager to recognize surrogacy contract, lists only a dozen of legal cases (Private International Law Issues Surrounding The Status Of Children, Including Issues Arising From International Surrogacy Arrangements, Document drawn up by the Permanent Bureau, March 2011).
[111] "Iceland Accepts Surrogate Baby Born in Thane," Hindustan Times 21.12.2010 http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-‐news/maharashtra/iceland-‐accepts-‐surrogate-‐baby-‐born-‐in-‐thane/article1-‐640934.aspx accessed 1.2.2015.
[112] Cases M.R & Anor v An tArd Chlaraitheoir & Ors, [2013] IEHC 91), http://www.bailii.org/ie/cases/IEHC/2013/H91.html accessed 12.1.2015, and Verfassungsgerichtshof, 11.10.2012—B 99/12 ua.
[113] Article 8: Right to respect for private and family life.
1 Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.
2. There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic wellbeing of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.
[114] The norms against surrogacy are only valid in French territory. In France not only civil status is inalienable, but it is a penal offence to incite to abandon a born or unborn child "either for pecuniary gain, or by gifts, promises, threats or abuse of authority." It is also forbidden "acting for pecuniary gain as an intermediary between a person desiring to adopt a child and a parent desiring to abandon its born or unborn child" (art. 227-12 of the Penal Code), including a woman agreeing to bear a child with the intent to give it up.
[115] Jennifer Degeling, The Intercountry Adoption to Good Practice Revisited: Good practice and real practice, Hague Conference on Private International Law, Nordic Adoption Council Meeting, 2009, 4-5th November, 2009, Rejkavik, Iceland (quoted by Ergas 2012a, 83 n. 215).
[116] See The private international law issues surrounding the status of children, including issues arising from international surrogacy arrangements: Key documents (http://www.hcch.net/index_en.php?act=text.display&tid=178 accessed 13.1.2015).
[117] Original note: "California Lawyer Ordered to Prison in Baby Scam," The Tennessean, 25 February 2012, [no more] available at: http://www.tennessean.com/article/20120225/NEWS08/302250066/California-lawyer-ordered-prison-baby-selling-scam.
[118] This is not the only example: "In April 1988, surrogate mother Patty Nowakowski gave birth to fraternal twins, a boy and a girl. The couple which had contracted for Mrs. Nowakowski's services as a surrogate mother refused to accept the baby boy, giving as a reason that they already had three male children and they did not want another. They were willing, however, to accept, and did take custody of, the baby girl. Mrs. Nowakowski sent the rejected baby boy to a foster home, but she later changed her mind and reclaimed him, deciding that she would raise him herself. About six weeks later Mrs. Nowakowski also reclaimed the baby girl by refusing to consent to her adoption by the contracting couple." (Krimmel 1992, 8. Original reference: "Rejected Boy's Twin Also With Mother," L.A. Times, 29.5.1988, http://articles.latimes.com/1988-05-29/news/mn-5294_1_twin-boys-mother accessed 21.1.2015).
[119] And a few horror stories as well. Murder: "a single man 'commissioned' a genetically-related child through a traditional surrogacy agreement in Pennsylvania. The baby, however, died six weeks after the birth as a result of physical abuse" (Huddleston v Infertility Clinic of America Inc, 20 August 1997, in Trimming and Beaumont 2013, 529 n. 314).
Things happening in India: "Eg. the story of a 22-year-old, Kavita Rakesh, who, due to pressing financial problems her family was facing, took a heartbreaking decision to abort her own baby to become a surrogate mother (F. Eliot, "Only Baby Couple Can Afford Is a Stranger's," The Times 10 April 2012, http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/asia/article3379054.ece accessed 28,12,2014, a similar story in Pande 2014, 114).
Death: "Eg. the story of a 30-year-old surrogate mother, Pamela Vaghels, who died in an Ahmedabad hospital in May 2012 during a routine check-up after delivering a baby for American intended parents: The New Indian Time Express, 14 June 2012, available at www.newindianexpress.com/editorials/article542128.ece" (Trimming and Beaumont 2013, 529 n. 311)
Unscrupulous birth mothers: "Eg. the Belgian case of Baby D. Court of Appeal, Ghent, 5 September 2005, where a Belgian surrogate entered into a surrogacy agreement with a Belgian couple. The surrogate later informed the couple that she had miscarried, whilst 'selling' the baby to a Dutch couple she had met online" (Trimming and Beaumont 2013, 529 n. 315).
The selling of fetuses (mentioned above): "A renowned California lawyer and a surrogate mom each got hit with jail time Friday for their roles in a black market operation that sold unborn fetuses to prospective parents for upwards of $100,000. Surrogacy attorney Theresa Erickson and repeat surrogate Carla Chambers had faced the possibility of five years behind bars, but both ultimately received just five months in federal custody along with subsequent stints of house arrest. Prosecutors said the women promised candidates to be surrogate mothers for up to $45,000 each to travel to the Ukraine and be implanted with fertilized embryos that would then be offered for sale during the third trimester" (Dillon 2012).
[120] The whole text of art. 7, paragraph 1, is: "The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents" (in fact, the estimation of unregistered babies in the world is 50 million). But this Convention has not been ratified by the US, "the world's greatest importer of foreign born children" (Bartner 2000, 425).
[121] S. 4 (c) of the Human Assisted Reproductive Technology Act 2004 (quoted by Achmad 2013, 297 and 300).
[122] ABC News. Women freed from 'inhuman' baby ring, 25 February 2011 (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/25/3148396.htm?section¼world accessed 27 November 2012). "In February 2010 the police arrested a Taiwanese brokering agency called 'Baby 101' and held in custody 15 Vietnamese women who were being trafficked to deliver 'designer babies' to foreign clients for a fee of about USD3,000" (Hibino and Shimazono 2013, 57).
[123] From a forum: "Circumstances have left me at 27 years old unable to have children. My husband hasn't left me (and for that, an enormous thank you to him). We decided to use the services of a surrogate mother and ran into a host of problems beyond nightmares. They cheat, come to you already pregnant, etc. They all have unimaginable fees: a one room apartment in Petersburg, $40–60,000. The surrogate mothers' logic is understandable—'I'm giving birth to a baby for you, giving it to you, so put me in luxury.' We can't afford this kind of sum. For that reason I'm addressing the applicants: DON'T CREATE ARTIFICIAL DEMAND. Two years ago the services costs $5,000. Have prices risen in these two years 10–15 times? Please share your experiences so we can figure out this problem."(Rivkin-Fish 2013, 579).
[124] Except that it seems that surrogate pregnancies are more difficult. Even Elly Teman, who extolls surrogacy as valuable work, compares its uneasiness (testified by surrogates who claim a worse experience of pregnancy than with their own children) with the deteriorating health of other dispossessed: "Coker interprets the illness narratives of Sudanese refugees in Egypt as somatic testimonials to their political powerlessness and the loss of their land and community. Since the same pattern of symptoms and interpretations occurred among surrogates who conceived on 'natural' cycles without hormones and among those who were medically prepared for conception, I would suggest that the surrogates, like the refugees, are expressing a type of somatic and narrative resistance to their situation" (Teman 2010, 45).
[125] A Facebook remark on the current scarcity of traditional surrogates in Britain: "As an IP [intended parent] I always think the deciding factor for a surro would be his you [her?] feel about the drugs for GS [gestational surrogacy] or the biology of carrying a child that is technically yours? There do seem to be less TS [traditional surrogates] around at the moment though."
[126] E.g. Caroline Graham: "Surrogate fathers tore my life apart: Used abused and called trailer trash...how UK poster boys for gay fatherhood turned on woman hired for her womb," Mail Online (Daily Mail), 3.1.2015. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2895772/Surrogate-fathers-tore-life-apart-Used-abused-called-trailer-trash-UK-poster-boys-gay-fatherhood-turned-woman-hired-womb.html?ito=social-facebook accessed 2.2.2015.
[127] Still active as National Leadership Coalition Against Exploitation of Women by Use of Gestational Surrogacy Agreements, see their letter to Governor of New Jersey Christopher Christie on his Veto of Gestational Surrogacy, 31.7.2012 (http://www.cbc-network.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/NJ_Gov_Christie_Ltr_2012-08-08.pdf accessed 14.1.2015) and the Coalition Press Release on the Veto, 8 August 2012 (http://www.cbc-network.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/NJ_Press_Release_2012-08-08.pdf accessed 14.1.2015).
[128] She told her story in Birth mother, Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1988.
[129] It seems that the choice of one or another kind of surrogacy is often made by "reconstructed families:" a new male partner comes to live with a woman that already has children and wants a child of his own, even if the woman is too old to conceive, or has become infertile after her last pregnancy. A US intended mother interviewed by the Swiss jurist Nora Bertschi finds, from her point of view, that men have a stronger will to reproduce (or rather, they do not bear the biological costs): "My boyfriend wasn't [infertile] and you know, for [a] man it's hard. […] I wanted to give him his own child, it's hard to understand" (Bertschi 2014, 141).
[130] ELSA Taranto (the local branch of the European Law Students' Association) in collaboration with SISM Bari (Italian Secretary of Medicine Students), 17 April 2013 at "Dipartimento Jonico in Sistemi economici e giuridici del Mediterraneo: Società, Ambiente, Culture," Università degli Studi di Bari (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uFvcAHxNlM accessed 1.9.2014).
[131] The Oakland lawyer recounts: "In my time, I never had a surrogate who wanted to keep the child, never, ever. They like being pregnant. Intended parents find surrogates who have kids and are usually married. So they never...
Q: When do they give up the baby?
A: Right after birth. They don't usually breastfeed them. They pump their breast for several weeks and they get paid for that, until the 15th week or something like that. So they do never breastfeed them. And sometimes when they have children, who are younger, they often have young kids, and if they see mommy pregnant and everything, they say, can we have an hour with my kids, after birth, alone, in the room with my kids and the baby, and the parents are happy with that. They do that, sometimes, just because mommy is pregnant, there's a baby in there, and she has to explain that" (Personal interview, January 2013).
[132] Hilary Hanafin: Surrogate mothers: an exploratory study, Doctoral dissertation, California School of Professional Psychology, Los Angeles 1984 (reported by Baslington 2002, 59).
[133] Journeyman TV (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SYBxY2NHaQ accessed 15.10.2014).
[134] One of them says: "Women have to bear so much of sadness for this, why should they give the money to their husbands? And in any case what does he have to do in this? He did nothing. At least the other man gave his sperm, not that that is a very big task either" (Pande 2014, 152).
[135] Original source: "She opposed the fetal reduction surgery that eliminated one of the fetuses she carried: 'Madam told us that the babies won't get enough space to move around and grow, so we should get the surgery. But Nandinididi [the intended mother] and I wanted to keep all three. I told Doctor Madam that I'll keep one and Nandinididi can keep two. We had informally decided on that. After all it's my blood even if it's their genes. And who knows whether at my age I'll be able to have more babies'" (Pande 2010, 308).
[136] This is a set phrase of the surrogates, exposed by Ragoné: "Based on the data gathered in this study, it can be concluded that it is not the ease of pregnancy that informs a surrogate's decision to become a surrogate; neither is it, as surrogates often state, that they 'enjoy being pregnant' or that 'pregnancy is a breeze,' although for some this may be true. It is clear that surrogates have experienced miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies, have had difficulty conceiving, and have been given infertility drugs, synthetic hormones to expedite conception, and that none of these obstacles discourage or dissuade surrogates" (Ragoné 1994, 62).
[137] Hilary Hanafin: Surrogate mothers: an exploratory study, Doctoral dissertation, California School of Professional Psychology, Los Angeles 1984 (quoted by Ragoné 1994, 56).
[138] Posted in http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/12/nj_gay_couple_fight_for_custod.html accessed 10.9.2014.
[139] Even in India: "the 'surrogacy industry' constructs the discourse of a win-win scenario for both infertile couples and women struggling with poverty. On both the demand and supply sides, one notices the emergence of a society in which individuals do not depend on the state for any solutions," comments an Indian feminist group (Sama 2012, 25).
[140] It can also be the very same women: "Surrogacy services now available in Nigeria" http://nigerianescorts.blogspot.it/2013/10/surrogacy-services-now-available-in_1.html accessed 3.1.2015.
[141] The conditions of inequality in which consent is expressed always makes it seem somehow forced: only social and economic equality will free the subject from all forms of coercion. But even if consent is seldom free from economic and cultural coercion, if expressed by informed adults it must be taken for what it is (even with a false consciousness).
[142] http://www.supportiveconceptionssurrogacy.com/financial-information.html accessed 1.1.2015.
[143] Ciccarelli, J. C. (1997). The surrogate mother: A post-birth follow-up study.
Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. Los Angeles: California School of Professional Psychology.
Hohman, M. M., & Hagan, C. B. (2001). Satisfaction with surrogate mothering: A relational model. In Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 4, 61–84.
Blyth, E. (1994). "I wanted to be interesting. I wanted to be able to say 'I've done something with my life':" Interviews with surrogate mothers in Britain." In Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, 12, 189–198.
[144] Same-sex Couples & Fertility: http://abivf.com/patients/same-sex, accessed 15.6.2013
[145] E.g, in an essay on the Chimera of "homoparentality" we find these risks: "More than 85% of the families of gay fathers were formed through adoption. Obviously, it is more difficult for a gay male to have a biological child than for a lesbian to have one, finding a woman who is willing to be a surrogate mother is much more difficult than finding a sperm donor. The risks of surrogacy are great; some states do not recognize contracts between prospective parents and surrogates, and the media abound in stories like the Mary Beth Whitehead case, where a surrogate mother reneged on her agreement and sought custody of the child" (Johnson and O'Connor 2002, 97).
[146] http://www.illinoissurrogateagency.com accessed 13.07.2013.
[147] A Facebook post sums the current costs up: "I don't think I've ever heard of a US surrogacy journey costing $50k, the cheapest is around $75k and we spent a LOT more than that!! so to break down the costs a bit—IVF (full package with multiple cycles) ranges from $35-50k, surrogate fee ranges from $20-30k, egg donor ranges from $5-10k, legal fees range from $5-10k the killer then comes in using an agency which can be from $15-50k and then health insurance which can be from $10-100k...!!!! so it all adds up - that doesn't include travel or incidentals or anything on top!!!"
[148] http://www.brilliantbeginnings.co.uk/blog/how-much-can-uk-surrogates-get-paiddated 30 September 2014, accessed 1.12.2014.
[149] Sample GS Contract: www.allaboutsurrogacy.com/sample_contracts/GScontract1.htm accessed 22.1.2015.
[150] Sample TS Contract: www.allaboutsurrogacy.com/sample_contracts/TScontract1.htm accessed 12.7. 2013
[151] http://www.allaboutsurrogacy.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=54547 accessed 6.2013.
[152] E.g. Bryan Robinson: "Fetuses and surrogacy lose in legal battle" (http://abcnews.go.com/US/sory?id=92627&page=1#.UeaKiaxpDZI accessed 15.7.2013); Mark Hughes: "'It wasn't their decision to play God': Surrogate mother flees after couple demands abortion of disabled baby," The Daily Telegraph, National Post Wire Services 13.3.06 (http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/03/06/it-wasnt-their-decision-to-play-god-surrogate-mother-flees-after-couple-demands-abortion-of-disabled-baby/ accessed 15.7.2013); "Surrogate mother pushes for adoption," BBC, 12.8.2001, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1485494.stm accessed 20.7.2013).
[153] Quotations from Oakley's introduction to Chesler 1988, xvii; Fineman 1995, 51; Ergas 2012a.; Chesler 1988, 158; Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: Manifesto of the Communist Party, 1948 https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch02.htm accessed 5.2.2015.
[154] I think we can safely agree that exploitation can happen also when the subject, the worker, does not perceive it. The problem of creating class consciousness derives exactly from these misperceptions.
[155] Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, "The Power of Money" (https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/power.htm accessed 21.1.2015). After "has" I omitted a note: "[In the manuscript: 'is'.—Ed.]."
[156] Quote from the blog "Son of a Surrogate" http://theothersideofsurrogacy.blogspot.it/ accessed 13.10.2014.
[157] The Other Side of Surrogacy http://theothersideofsurrogacy.blogspot.it/ accessed 13.1.2015.
[158] In India status is generally still conferred to brides only when they deliver a male heir, necessary for religious reasons. Only after this "proof" of their womanly capacities are they integrated into the family, deserving the others' respect: "A woman is respected as a wife only if she is mother of a child, so that her husband's masculinity and sexual potency is proved and the lineage continues" (Government of India 2009, 6).