Zsuzsa Berend, "The Online World of Surrogacy"

Abstract

Contemporary surrogacy was first introduced to many with the Baby M. case of the late 1980s, becoming a political issue and a topic of international discussion. Surrogacy is mantled by multiple and articulated social disconfirmation that stress how it is surrounded by ethical issues at different levels and with different degrees. Many critics of surrogacy problematized commodification of life, the patriarchal exploitation on women’s reproductive capabilities, and the idea that babies are snatch from the womb of the surrogates. Rather than exploring these much-rehearsed and not particularly fruitful questions about ethics and moral risks of the exploitation and commodification, Zsuzsa Berend pays attention to what Fourcade and Healy called “moralized markets”.