Research about gestational surrogacy is limited from the surrogate’s perspective, yet third party reproduction is on the rise worldwide, and specifically in Canada. The experiences, relationships, and meanings of Canadian surrogate mothers are the focus of this research. Eight women’s narratives are studied to better understand the process of their gestational surrogacy experience. The purpose of this study was to learn more about surrogacy by paying attention to how surrogate mothers story/narrate their experiences. The good surrogate discourse, which influences meaning making, was uncovered when analyzing how surrogate mothers narrate their experience within gestational surrogacy positions, roles, and procedures. Further analysis focused on discourses of motherhood, gender, biomedical practice, fertility, ethics, and legislation which actively shape the stories that can be told, and limit the identities that are available. Similarly, these discourses influence relationships as surrogates monitor their need for connection with the surrogate child. Professionals in the field of child and youth care (CYC) including family practitioners, counsellors, and anyone working with children, youth, and families need to be mindful of their practice if third party reproduction is an issue as counselling support for grief and loss may be necessary. / Graduate

Surrogacy is an arrangement whereby a woman conceives in order to give birth to child or children for another individual or couple to raise. This thesis explores how commercial gestational surrogacy is culturally framed and socially organised in Russia and investigates the roles of the key actors. In particular it explores the experiences of surrogacy workers, including those who migrate or commute long distances within and to Russia for surrogacy work and the significance of their origin, citizenship, ethnicity and religion in shaping their experience. Ethnographic fieldwork was carried out in St Petersburg between August 2014 and May 2015 and involved semi-structured interviews, (participant) observations, informal conversations and ethnographic fieldnotes with 33 surrogacy workers, 7 client parents, 15 agency staff and 11 medical staff in medical and surrogacy agency facilities. Data were analysed using inductive ethnographic principles. A reflexive account, which includes a consideration of the utility of making one’s own emotional responses a research tool, is also included. Drawing on and expanding on Colen’s (1995) conceptual framework of stratified reproduction and Crenshaw’s (1989) analytical framework of intersectionality, this research shows that surrogacy in Russia is culturally framed and therefore socially organised as an economic exchange, which gives rise to and reinforces different forms of intersecting reproductive stratifications. These stratifications include biological, social, geographic, geo-political and ethnic dimensions. Of particular novelty is the extension of Colen’s framework to address geographic and geo political stratifications. This was based on the finding that some women (temporarily) migrate or commute (over long distances) to work as gestational carriers. The thesis also demonstrates how an economic framing of surrogacy induced surrogacy workers to understand surrogacy gestation as work, which influenced their relationships with client parents. Given the rapid global increase in the use of surrogacy and its increasingly internationalised nature, this research into the social organisation of commercial gestational surrogacy in Russia is timely and has implications for users, medical practitioners and regulators, as well as researchers concerned with (cross-border) surrogacy and reproductive justice.

Entre 2008 et 2011, les lois de bioéthique françaises ont été examinées pour la seconde fois. A cette occasion, plusieurs débats polémiques ont été rouverts au cours d’une large consultation associant des « experts », des représentants de la société civile organisée et - pour la première fois en la matière - des citoyens lambda. Cette procédure originale, les « états généraux de la bioéthique », est étudiée par l’intermédiaire de la discussion relative à la potentielle légalisation de la gestation pour autrui (GPA). La théorie habermassienne de l’espace public et de la délibération permet de questionner ce processus de mise en discussion, initié par les mobilisations sociales, pris en charge par les pouvoirs publics et conclu par la promulgation d’une loi. Le concept de légitimité est au cœur de cette recherche, qui interroge ses fondements et met en lumière ses ambigüités. Expertise des comités de sages, recours aux citoyens ordinaires, vote parlementaire, constituent autant d’étapes par lesquelles la décision est progressivement construite et légitimée. Dans le cas présent, le dispositif participatif joue un rôle déterminant, véhiculant des représentations particulières de la démocratie participative, de la formation de l’intérêt général et de la loi « à la française ». / Between 2008 and 2011, the French bioethics laws were examined for the second time. On that occasion, a lot of polemical debates were re-opened, during a broad consultation involving “experts”, representatives of civil society and, for the first time in this field, ordinary citizens. This original procedure, the “états généraux de la bioéthique”, is studied through the controversy over legalization of gestational surrogacy. The Habermasian public sphere and deliberative democracy theory is used to question the discussion process initiated by social mobilizations, managed by public authorities and finalized by the promulgation of a law. Legitimacy is at the core of this doctoral research, which is wondering about its foundations and highlighting its ambiguities. The decision is progressively built and legitimated through the consultation of committees, the participation of citizens and the vote of the Parliament. In this case, the “états généraux de la bioéthique” play a crucial role by conveying some specific perspectives about participatory democracy, general will definition and “French style” law.

[pt] O tema central da tese é o contrato de gestação de substituição. Sua análise está delimitada aos efeitos decorrentes da consideração do seu objeto, se lícito ou ilícito, à luz das regras de direito constitucional e civil do ordenamento brasileiro. O marco teórico é delineado pelas obras de Francisco Cavalcanti Pontes de Miranda – notadamente as noções acerca dos planos do negócio jurídico – e Marcel Mauss – especificamente o Ensaio sobre a dádiva – e a escola de Direito Civil Constitucional – a partir da qual se construiu a análise das categorias que permeiam todo o estudo: dignidade da pessoa humana, autonomia privada e dicotomia entre coisa e pessoa. O objetivo geral foi investigar se o objeto do contrato de gestação de substituição suportaria o conceito de licitude à luz do sistema jurídico de regras e de princípios constitucionais. Consequentemente, três objetivos específicos foram traçados. O primeiro delimitou conceitualmente os termos objeto, licitude e ilicitude na doutrina e na jurisprudência brasileira e constatou que esses conceitos carregam um conteúdo que deve ser adequado com vistas a comportar a nova categoria de contrato – que incorpora aspectos patrimoniais e extrapatrimoniais. O segundo, ao investigar se tais contratos são levados à apreciação do Poder Judiciário, constatou ser afirmativa a indagação. Entretanto, expôs-se que a avaliação feita pelo Poder Judiciário se limita ao reconhecimento ou não da filiação. O terceiro objetivo específico identificou que o Poder Judiciário tem considerado o objeto do contrato de gestação de substituição como lícito, pois se baseia nas diretrizes estabelecidas pela Resolução n. 2.121/2015 do Conselho Federal de Medicina acerca da gestação de substituição gratuita. Diante da situação fática, constatou-se a relativização de conceitos delimitados pela regra jurídica para se alcançar esta ou aquela solução para casos delicados. Nenhuma outra consideração acerca da licitude ou ilicitude do objeto contratual pôde ser estabelecida diante dos casos analisados. / [en] The central theme of the thesis is gestational surrogacy contract. Theanalysis is bounded to the effects arising from the consideration of its object, whether lawful or unlawful according to the rules of constitutional and civil lawof the Brazilian legal system. The theoretical framework is outlined by the works of Francisco Cavalcanti Pontes de Miranda - especially the notions about the legal business plans - and Marcel Mauss - specifically the Essay on the gift - and the school of Constitutional Civil Law - from which it has built an analysis of categories that permeate the whole study: human dignity, personal autonomy and dichotomy between thing and person. The overall objective was to investigate whether the object gestational surrogacy contract would support the concept of legality according to the legal system and constitutional principles. As a result, three specific objectives were outlined. The first conceptually delimited the terms object, legality and illegality in doctrine and Brazilian jurisprudence and found that these concepts carry content that must be appropriate in order to support this new contract category - which incorporates patrimonial and non patrimonial rights. The second, while investigating whether such agreements are taken into account by the Judiciary, it was found an affirmative answer. However, it exposed that the analysis made by the judiciary is limited to the recognition of legitimate filiation. The third specific objective identified that the judiciary has considered the object of gestational surrogacy agreement as lawful contract because it is based on guidelines established by Resolution n. 2.121/2015 of Federal Council of Medicine about the altruistic surrogacy. On the factual situation, there was noted the relativism of concepts delimited by the legal rule in order to be put into perspective of delicate cases. No further consideration about the legality of contractual object could be established before the analysed cases.