From computer support and hotel reservations to laboratory results and
radiographic interpretations, it seems everything can be
‘outsourced’ in our globalized world. One would not think so with
parenthood, however, especially motherhood, as it is a fundamental
activity humans have historically preserved as personal and private.
In our modern age, however, the advent and accessibility of assisted
reproductive technologies (ARTs) and the ease with which they have
traversed global borders, has fundamentally altered the meaning of
childbearing and parenting. In the twenty-first century, parenthood is
no longer achieved only through gestation, adoption, or traditional
surrogacy, but also via assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs),
where science and technology play lead roles. Furthermore, in a
globalized world economy, where the movement and transfer of people
and commodities are increasing to serve the interests of capitalism,
gamete donation and surrogate birth can traverse innumerable
geographic, socio-economic, racialized, and political borderlands.
Thus, reproduction itself can be outsourced. This edited volume
explores one specific aspect of the new assisted reproductive
technologies: gestational surrogacy and how its practice is changing
the traditional concept of parenthood across the globe. The phenomenon
of transnational surrogacy has given rise to a thriving international
industry where money is being ‘legally’ exchanged for babies and
‘reproductive labor’ has taken on a lucrative commercial tone.
Yet, law, research, and activism are barely aware of this experience
and are still playing catch-up with rapidly changing on-the-ground
realities. This interdisciplinary collection of essays assuages the
dearth of knowledge and addresses significant issues in transnational
commercial gestational surrogacy as it takes shape in a peculiar
relation between the West (primarily the United States) and India.
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Outsourcing Life
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780739187432
Publisert
2015
Utgiver
Vendor
Lexington Books
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter