Neither altruistic nor commercial surrogacy is allowed in Sweden but neither is it forbidden for Swedes to travel abroad for surrogacy arrangements. The debate on allowing altruistic surrogacy in Sweden has grown and changed in recent years, from being seen as an unusual method of reproduction to becoming a major family policy issue. In a 2013 report by the Swedish National Council on Medical Ethics aimed at examining the permissibility of altruistic surrogacy, all members of the council agreed that commercial surrogacy is not ethically justifiable. There are several arguments against commercial surrogacy, including the fact that it takes place under exploitative and coercive conditions. Hence, Sweden would never allow commercial surrogacy. However, the majority considered that altruistic surrogacy could be justifiable under certain conditions. The arguments about whether altruistic surrogacy can violate human rights are not as numerous. This thesis has aimed to examine the arguments for and against allowing altruistic surrogacy in Sweden by analysing debate articles and other argumentative newspaper articles. These arguments have then been assessed against four ethical principles, namely respect for human dignity, self-determination, self-ownership and the principle of the best interests of the child, to determine whether or not altruistic surrogacy should be allowed in Sweden. With the help of argumentation analysis, debate articles from several Swedish newspapers regarding altruistic surrogacy have been analysed and the results show that the pro-surrogacy side claims that a ban on altruistic surrogacy risks limiting women's right to self-determination and self-ownership over their own bodies. While the anti-surrogacy side argues that allowing altruistic surrogacy violates our human dignity, which states that we should be treated as ends and not as means. What emerges is that both sides of the altruistic surrogacy debate see the current Swedish legislation that neither prohibits nor allows surrogacy as problematic. Both sides argue that it risks leading to Swedish citizens continuing to travel abroad to use commercial surrogate mothers who are often mistreated and exploited. But here the pro-surrogacy side argues that the solution is to allow altruistic surrogacy to stop Swedes from travelling abroad. While the anti-surrogacy side argues that allowing it would not reduce the number of trips abroad and a total ban on surrogacy is the solution.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-529660 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | von Bolton, Maja |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Teologiska institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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