Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Study of the Transnational Surrogacy Industry

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Medical tourism, including for reproductive services like surrogacy, is a growing market that is largely unregulated. Surrogacy, in particular, is highly controversial and only legal in a handful of jurisdictions globally. An increasing number of people are traveling across borders to hire women to gestate and birth children. However, very little is known about this process including how certain locations become hubs for international surrogacy, the experiences of women serving as surrogate mothers, and the impact of this industry on local politics and economics in newly-established surrogacy hubs. This project will deliver much needed empirical data on the operation and organization of the industry, as well as the experiences of surrogate mothers and intended parents. The study will also contribute to debates about the feasibility and merits of regulating surrogacy at the international level. This study will provide a platform for presenting the voices of the women who are most affected by this industry but are often unheard in legal and moral debates about surrogacy. This project will be of interest to policy makers, health care providers, and users.This study will contribute to an ongoing discussion of the relationship between developments in medical technologies and the emergence of new global markets. This research addresses the intellectual, material, and social problem of regulating new technological possibilities in a globalized world. This project is a multi-sited ethnographic study of the surrogacy industry. Employing a combination of observation, interviews, and archival research, the investigators will collect information about 1) the history and organization of the surrogacy industry, 2) the key actors, including the history of their involvement in surrogacy, and 3) the everyday processes through which commercial surrogacy is negotiated and experienced. The researchers will investigate how and why nations and communities became a global surrogacy destination, how the surrogacy industry is organized, and how the market reacts to changing regulations.