Sociological Debates on Gestational Surrogacy

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxii

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2. An Introduction to the Problems of Surrogacy and the Demands from Civil Society

   • Daniela Bandelli

   Pages 1-7Open Access

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3. The Study’s Origins and Methodology

   • Daniela Bandelli

   Pages 9-16Open Access

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4. Features of a Booming Reproductive Practice: The Medical Process, the Market, the Antecedents, and the Risks

   • Daniela Bandelli

   Pages 17-37Open Access

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5. Sociological Perspectives Across Individual Experiences, Social Structures, and Representations

   • Daniela Bandelli

   Pages 39-65Open Access

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6. Surrogacy in the United States: The Horse Is Out of the Barn

   • Daniela Bandelli

   Pages 67-83Open Access

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7. The Mexican Case: The Differences between Autonomy and Radical Feminism

   • Daniela Bandelli

   Pages 85-104Open Access

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8. The Italian Case: A Strong Opposition in the Name of Women’s Sexual Identity and Motherhood

   • Daniela Bandelli

   Pages 105-121Open Access

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9. Abolitionist and Regulatory Arguments into Perspectives

   • Daniela Bandelli

   Pages 123-149Open Access

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10. Conclusions

    • Daniela Bandelli

    Pages 151-158Open Access

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This open access book discusses and analyses competing views and social implications of gestational surrogacy, which is making inroads as an option for parenthood as well as a work opportunity for women. It provides a rich account of transnational mobilizations for the abolition and regulation of surrogacy, with focus on United States, Italy and Mexico. The author critically assesses the core narratives of supporters and opponents of surrogacy, in order to understand this reproductive practice in light of some of the essential elements of contemporary societies, such as the “child at any cost” culture, individualism, technology and female emancipation. This book appeals to scholars, policy makers and all those who want to understand the controversial debate on this unprecedented method of family formation and life production.

• Open Access
• Surrogate motherhood
• Reproductive work
• Assisted reproduction
• Feminist abolitionists
• Women's empowerment
• Commodification of women and children
• Reproductive rights
• Child's rights
• Gestational surrogacy

• Department of Human Studies, LUMSA University, Rome, Italy

  Daniela Bandelli

Daniela Bandelli, PhD, is Lecturer of Sociology at LUMSA University in Rome (Italy). She has a  Ph.D. from the University of Queensland, Australia. As a Marie-Sklodowska Curie Fellow and visiting scholar at the University of Texas, she is conducting the project “Women's Movements and Gestational Surrogacy” (WoMoGeS), with fieldwork in Mexico, United States and Italy and this book is an outcome of the research project. Her research interests span across assisted reproduction, domestic violence, and feminism. She is the author of Femicide, Gender, and Violence (Palgrave MacMillan, 2017).

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