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“Why We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know” About Canada’s Surrogacy Practices and Outcomes
From: Surrogacy in Canada
$3.00
We know very little about the lived experiences of women who act as surrogates, the intended parents, and the children conceived as a result of surrogacy arrangements. Pamela M White, in Chapter 2, spells out what we don’t know about surrogacy practices and outcomes in Canada and explores why these gaps exist. She identifies a number of cultural, historical, political, legal, and regulatory factors that have resulted in a shortage in data about assisted reproduction and surrogacy in Canada. One significant shortcoming is the focus on quantitative, rather than qualitative, research, and she notes that the latter would provide important insights into the lived experiences of surrogates, intended parents, and resulting children. White also identifies a number of gaps in the quantitative data, many of which arise because the intended parent, rather than the surrogate, is erroneously categorized as the “patient” for registry purposes. White concludes that a number of changes are needed to ensure there is a comprehensive and accurate understanding of surrogacy practices and outcomes in Canada.
Contributors
Pamela M White
Pamela M White is a specialist associate lecturer, Kent Law School, University of Kent, where she teaches undergraduate and LLM degree courses in medical law and ethics, and privacy and data protection law. She also teaches undergraduate medical law at Canterbury Christchurch University. Her research interests focus on the interface of medical law, bioethics, regulation, and population health policy. In her published work, she melds qualitative and quantitative data analysis with critical legal studies. Her scholarship draws on her extensive experience in the Canadian federal government where she was a senior director managing health, social, and demographic research. She has held assignments with the Office of Canadian Federal Privacy Commissioner, the Assisted Human Reproduction Agency of Canada, and the Population Health and Genomics Foundation, Cambridge.
