During the past few years, reproductive technology and surrogacy have emerged in a number of European countries as issues of debate. There has been a steady increase in the use of reproductive technology in the Nordic countries, as well as an increase in the use of cross-border medical treatment in order to achieve pregnancy. At the same time, a number of ethical issues have been raised concerning the rights of the participants, including the children. In the fall of 2013, the Nordic Committee on Bioethics organised a conference in Reykjavik that focused on the current situation in the Nordic countries and on the global aspects of reproductive technology and surrogacy, including the market that is emerging in this field. This conference summary highlights the main ethical issues facing researchers, policymakers and practitioners who deal with these issues.

Offers a comprehensive guide to assisted reproductive technology surveillance, describing its history, global variations, and best practices.

Susan Markens takes on one of the hottest issues on the fertility front—surrogate motherhood—in a book that illuminates the culture wars that have erupted over new reproductive technologies in the United States. In an innovative analysis of legislative responses to surrogacy in the bellwether states of New York and California, Markens explores how discourses about gender, family, race, genetics, rights, and choice have shaped policies aimed at this issue. She examines the views of key players, including legislators, women's organizations, religious groups, the media, and others. In a study that finds surprising ideological agreement among those with opposing views of surrogate motherhood, Markens challenges common assumptions about our responses to reproductive technologies and at the same time offers a fascinating picture of how reproductive politics shape social policy.

While the practice of surrogacy has existed for millennia, new fertility technologies have allowed women to act as gestational surrogates, carrying children that are not genetically their own. While some women volunteer to act as gestational surrogates for friends or family members, others get paid for performing this service. The first ethnographic study of gestational surrogacy in the United States, Labor of Love examines the conflicted attitudes that emerge when the ostensibly priceless act of bringing a child into the world becomes a paid occupation. Heather Jacobson interviews not only surrogate mothers, but also their family members, the intended parents who employ surrogates, and the various professionals who work to facilitate the process. Seeking to understand how gestational surrogates perceive their vocation, she discovers that many regard surrogacy as a calling, but are reluctant to describe it as a job. In the process, Jacobson dissects the complex set of social attitudes underlying this resistance toward conceiving of pregnancy as a form of employment. Through her extensive field research, Jacobson gives readers a firsthand look at the many challenges faced by gestational surrogates, who deal with complicated medical procedures, delicate work-family balances, and tricky social dynamics. Yet Labor of Love also demonstrates the extent to which advances in reproductive technology are affecting all Americans, changing how we think about maternity, family, and the labor involved in giving birth. For more, visit http://www.heatherjacobsononline.com/

Where pregnancy is concerned, let every pregnancy be for everyone. Let us overthrow, in short, the “family” The surrogacy industry is estimated to be worth over $1 billion a year, and many of its surrogates around the world work in terrible conditions—deception, wage-stealing and money skimming are rife; adequate medical care is horrifyingly absent; and informed consent is depressingly rare. In Full Surrogacy Now, Sophie Lewis brings a fresh and unique perspective to the topic. Often, we think of surrogacy as the problem, but, Full Surrogacy Now argues, we need more surrogacy, not less! Rather than looking at surrogacy through a legal lens, Lewis argues that the needs and protection of surrogates should be put front and center. Their relationship to the babies they gestate must be rethought, as part of a move to recognize that reproduction is productive work. Only then can we begin to break down our assumptions that children “belong” to those whose genetics they share. Taking collective responsibility for children would radically transform our notions of kinship, helping us to see that it always takes a village to make a baby.

As more people turn to assisted reproduction, the legal issues surrounding it have become increasingly complex. Beyond representing patients or clinics, numerous legal problems are arising from the technology's application. Disputes in divorce are the most common, but this technology impacts the law in other areas, including personal injury, insurance, criminal law, and estate planning. Drawing from multiple legal sources, this book presents complex information in a direct, balanced and fair manner. It includes glossary, sample forms and checklists, and bibliography.

Focuses on the practice of cross-racial gestational surrogacy, in which a woman--through in-vitro fertilization using the sperm and egg of intended parents or donors--carries a pregnancy for intended parents of a different race. Concentrating on the racial differences between parents and surrogates, Harrison is interested in how reproductive technologies intersect with race, particularly when brown bodies produce white babies. She provides an interdisciplinary analysis that includes legal cases of contested surrogacy, historical examples of surrogacy as a form of racialized reproductive labor, the role of genetics in the assisted reproduction industry, and the recent turn toward reproductive tourism. --From publisher description.