Surrogate Motherhood and the Politics of Reproduction

Susan Markens

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN:
  9780520252035
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780520940970
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Cultural & Social Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

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.

Table of contents

• CONTENTS
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Unfamiliar Families?
• 1. The New Problem of Surrogate Motherhood:Legislative Responses
• 2. “Choice” and the “Best Interests of Children”:Claiming the Problem of Surrogate Motherhood
• 3. “Moral Conundrums and Menacing Ambiguities”:Framing the Problem of Surrogate Motherhood
• 4. Competing Frames of Surrogacy: Comparing Newspapers’ Coverage of “Horror Stories”
• 5. Unity, Divisions, and Strange Bedfellows: Divergent Legislative Responses to Surrogate Motherhood
• 6. A Brave New World? Reproductive Politics from the Past to the Present
• Appendix A: A Note on Methods and Data
• Appendix B: A Multistate Comparison of the Impact of Sponsor’s Gender and Abortion Position on the Successof Surrogacy Bills
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index