REVISITING "THE HANDMAID'S TALE": FEMINIST THEORY MEETS EMPIRICAL RESEARCH ON SURROGATE MOTHERS: Karen Busby and Delaney Vun

(I've stripped the footnotes, but you can find them--and related discussion--when you download the paper itself):

...We then consider recent research on the characteristics and experiences of women who have agreed to be surrogates. In this review, which is the main focus of the paper, empiricism will meet feminist theory as we revisit arguments against surrogacy, including the inability to give informed consent, the inherently exploitative nature of the arrangements and the dangers of commodification. Anecdotal research, both popular and theoretical, is available as is research based on more rigorous empirical methodologies to study the experiences of surrogate mothers. As will be described more fully, the “empirical data [consistently] offers little support for widely expressed concerns about contractual parenting being emotionally damaging or exploitative for surrogate mothers, children or intended/social parents”.

Vasanti Jadva and her research team concluded, based on interviews with 34 British women who have been surrogate mothers, that

Overall, surrogacy appears to be a positive experience for surrogate mothers. Women
who decide to embark on surrogacy often have completed a family of their own and feel that they wish to help a couple who would not otherwise be able to become parents. The present study lends little support to the commonly held expectation that surrogate
mothers will experience psychological problems following the birth of the child. Instead, surrogate mothers often reported a feeling of self-worth. In addition, surrogate mothers generally reported positive experiences with the commissioning couple, and many maintained contact with them and the child.

A challenge to the federal Assisted Human Reproduction Act (AHRA) (which prohibits paying a woman to be a surrogate mother) on federalism grounds was argued before the Supreme Court of Canada in April 2009. (The case started on reference by the Quebec government, before Quebec courts and they were joined by the governments of Alberta, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick before the Supreme Court of Canada.) Many sections of the AHRA were declared unconstitutional by both lower courts.

If the lower court decisions are upheld, the remaining sections of the AHRA will not make sense on their own and the federal government as well as provincial governments will need to reconsider surrogacy and other assisted human reproduction laws. Given this possibility, and in light of the research on surrogate mothers’ experiences, it is timely to review Canadian laws relating to surrogacy arrangements. We will briefly undertake such a review in the last section of the paper.

download the paper here (PDF)

Labels: Artificial Reproductive Technology, feminism, surrogate motherhood

posted by Eve at 8:32 PM VOTE

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