 Surrogacy: reproductive rights enabling ‘biological colonialism’?Marianna Iliadou Chapter 6 in Research Handbook on Human Rights Law and Health, 2025, pp 137-158 from Edward Elgar Publishing Abstract: Reproductive rights are recognised as human rights by the United Nations system. Although not the traditional focus of reproductive rights, surrogacy, a third-party reproduction, is included in the protection of reproductive rights. This chapter addresses the shortcomings of merely using the reproductive rights lens and focuses on the reproductive justice framework. In an era of booming surrogacy industries, often wealthier intended parents travel from the Global North to the Global South to benefit from lower cost services of surrogates. This creates colonial-like power dynamics, enabling the potential exploitation of impoverished women (‘biological colonialism’). This chapter first addresses reproductive rights as human rights, engaging with the international framework, and surrogacy as third-party reproduction. It then utilises the reproductive justice framework to demonstrate the shortcomings of a merely legalistic approach and free choice. It then considers international surrogacy and ‘biological colonialism’ to finally contemplate decolonising surrogacy through the emancipatory cosmopolitan feminism framework. Keywords: Surrogacy; Reproductive rights; Reproductive justice; Colonialism; Emancipatory cosmopolitan feminism (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:21796_7 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing |
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