If altruistic surrogacy should be legal in Sweden, laws concerning screening of the parents should be mandatory and adoption should be promoted as an alternative to surrogacy to a larger extent. Both in surrogacy and adoption the best interest of the child should be a priority, but parents regardless of sexuality, income and to some extent age, should qualify as long as they can prove their ability as parents.

This thesis intends to demonstrate why commercial surrogacy is not morally justifiable. In order to display the implication of the aim, a normative argumentative method is applied. In the analysis, arguments, and possible counter-arguments of ethical issues of exploitation, commodification, individual freedom and estranged labor in context to surrogacy arrangements is outlined. To strengthen the content of the arguments presented the concept of exploitation, commodification together with the harm principle and the Marxian framework of estranged labor will act as the theoretical framework of the thesis. In the analysis, it is shown that global economic inequalities, and social structures of class and gender make the practice of surrogacy exploitative per se and that the surrogate becomes objectified as she as a person and her body is treated as a commodity. Based on these factors, it is concluded that surrogacy cannot be morally justified.

Tidigare feministiska studier om kommersiellt surrogatmödraskap har huvudsakligen fokuserat på hur surrogatindustrin fungerar inom ett land. Med en utgångspunkt i en feminist-marxistisk begreppsapparat, syftar följande kandidatuppsats att synliggöra hur dagens sydostasiatiska surrogatmarknad verkar gränsöverskridande och informellt. Utifrån en kvalitativ fallstudie på Kambodja kan vi inneha en förståelse till hur globalisering möjliggjort surrogatföretagens gränsöverskridande expansion, men även vilka ytterligare osäkerhetsfaktorer som drabbar surrogaterna när de flyttas över gränser. Studiens resultat argumenterar för att det är både materiella och idémässiga skiften som legitimerar att kvinnors biologiska material blivit en del av ett bioekonomiskt, profitskapande projekt. Genom att undersökningen erhåller ny empiri bidrar studien till att etablera en riktning för framtida forskning inom det IPE-feministiska paradigmet. Samtidigt övertygar studiens resultatet om att det feminist-marxistiskt perspektivet är relevant inom fältet Internationella Relationer. / Previous feminist studies on commercial surrogacy have mainly focused on how the surrogate industry operates within a country. With a starting point from a feminist-marxist conceptual framework, the following bachelor thesis aims to highlight how the current southeast asian surrogacy market operates cross-border and informal. Based on a qualitative case study in Cambodia, we can understand how globalization enabled the cross-border expansion of the surrogate companies, but also which additional factors of insecurity that will affect the surrogates when they are moved across borders. The results of the study argue that it’s both material and ideational shifts that legitimize that women’s biological material became part of a bioeconomic profitable project. By gaining new empirical knowledge, the study contributes to establishing a direction for future research within the IPE-feminist paradigm. At the same time, the result of the study convinces that a feminist-marxist perspective is relevant within the field of International Relations.

This thesis explores transnational commercial surrogacy in the context of Thailand, with the specific purpose to examine Thai women’s motives and experiences of being a surrogate mother. The study is based on two months of fieldwork in Bangkok between June and August 2014 during which interviews were conducted with eleven former, current or future surrogate mothers. The analysis take a postcolonial feminist approach, and draw upon theory of motherhood, intimate labor and stratified reproduction. The study shows how the women’s account of why they want to become a surrogate mother is influenced by contemporary cultural and moral values regarding motherhood and womanhood. By being a surrogate mother they live up to the ideal role of the nurturing mother and the dutiful daughter. Furthermore, the women’s experiences of the pregnancy and their position in the arrangement is characterized by worry, uncertainty, and mistrust. This is partly due to how their rights and opinions are deemed less significant than those of the intended parents. The women are also severely limited in their say over various aspects of the pregnancy. Even though the surrogate mothers have made conscious decisions without being persuaded by family or friends, the study shows that they are still in an exposed position within an arrangement that is characterized by uneven power relations. This is further shown by locating the surrogate mothers’ stories and experiences in relation to other stakeholders and within the larger context of commercial surrogacy in Thailand, as well as on a global level.

Magister Legum - LLM / Surrogacy on many occasions is referred to a million-dollar industry. Just like many countries, South Africa has prohibited commercial surrogacy, thus South Africa only permits altruistic surrogacy. The prohibition has consequences for third parties such as surrogacy agencies and surrogacy facilitators, as their right to occupation freedom which is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, is limited. No right is absolute, any right can be limited if it can be proved that it is in the best interest of the public. The prohibition on commercial surrogacy is argued to be in the best interest of the public as it can lead to the exploitation of women and the commodification of children.

The following is a study and comparison of the various types of surrogacy currently being implemented locally and internationally and the laws surrounding it. I discuss the current South African legal framework on surrogacy and summarise the relevant legislative provisions whilst also further discussing the provisions prohibiting commercial surrogacy and the reasons behind them. Thereafter an investigation follows into other counties in respect of their individual laws regulating surrogacy and more specifically, commercial surrogacy. I discuss how these countries attempted to regulate commercial surrogacy and which regulations were a success and which weren‘t. The various international laws and regulations surrounding surrogacy as well as commercial surrogacy is then compared and discussed in a South African context. A discussion on the intertwined constitutional rights of the surrogate mother, commissioning parents and child follows and in conclusion I offer some recommendations on how to go about legalising commercial surrogacy safely and successfully implementing it free from exploitation. / Private Law / LL.M. (Specialisation in Private Law)