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ISBN: 9781771862240

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Stolen Motherhood

Surrogacy and Made-to-Order Children

Neither marginal nor secret, contracting surrogate mothers is growing rapidly and is regarded as socially progressive. Yet the “process” is vitiated from the get go, i.e., commissioning a woman to bear, birth, and surrender a baby.

Surrogacy undermines a woman’s human dignity. It makes her an instrument in other people’s project and attacks her equal gender rights. It also objectivizes and denies the rights of the child to be born.

Countries that have adopted a fait accompli approach (simply regulating) have seen people, coached by shrewd international brokers, go “international.” That only means the surrogate mother is from a poor country with lax legislation while the commissioning parents are from a rich one.

By examining the “surrogacy process” and all its implications, Maria De Koninck reaches the conclusion that the best way forward is an international ban on surrogacy.

Arielle Aaronson translated this book into English. Arielle Aaronson is a Montreal translator with degrees from Concordia and McGill. She has translated both fiction and nonfiction for all audiences.

Please Note: A collection can contain up to 30% of the chapters from this title

Contributors

Maria De Koninck

Maria De Koninck (PhD) was Université Laval’s first Chair of Women’s Studies. Her research has focused on women’s health, including childbirth and reproductive technologies. Her 20 years of international experience include work on HIV-AIDS in West Africa and maternal mortality (notably for WHO). She lives in Quebec City.

Chapter Title Contents Contributors Pages Year Price

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The introduction looks at legality in Quebec and Canada and establishes some vocabulary definitions. 24 $2.40

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The author begins by examining the social, cultural, and economic factors that underpin surrogacy, claiming that it is essential to examine it in today’s context while identifying the … 32 $3.20

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This chapter looks at the evolution of the concept/experience of motherhood, and the author asserts that society is increasingly viewing pregnancy and childbirth from a utilitarian perspective, … 33 $3.30

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This chapter focuses on the children at the "heart" of surrogacy, highlighting these children’s wellbeing, future, and all other considerations, which the author argues are … 23 $2.30

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The author critiques the for-profit contract based model of surrogacy and looks at the implications of this model. She touches on concepts of medical ethics, individualism, social infertility, … 22 $2.20

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This chapter examines three dimensions of surrogacy more closely: "the health of mother and child, the use of anthropological knowledge in the debate surrounding it, and the illusion that … 22 $2.20

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The conclusion touches on the nature of the demand for surrogacy and argues that surrogacy should be banned internationally. 13 $1.30