Families on the Market Front

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the narrative frames that commissioning parents utilize in justification in participation in commercial surrogacy. Cross-border surrogacy operates in a global market, based upon the commerce of gametes and reproductive services involving third-party women, often from impoverished parts of the world (Vora 2015). This creates a moral dilemma for commissioning fathers, regarding the commodification of women and children in the market for reproductive services, and the related harm and exploitation within surrogacy markets. In my study, Israeli surrogacy fathers negotiated these moral conflicts by forming ideas and ideals of reciprocity, intimacy and shared commitment toward and with the surrogate. However, the realization of these ideals was heavily dependent upon legal regulations in the surrogacy state and the commissioning parents’ state. This in turn brings to the fore the question of relations between desires and normative standards, as well as the urgent need to better regulation of cross-border reproductive markets.