Surrogacy is an arrangement in which a woman carries, delivers, and then relinquishes a baby to commissioning parents. The arrangement challenges traditional norms and definitions of reproduction, pregnancy and motherhood, and at the same time raises difficult ethical, philosophical and social questions. There is currently an ongoing debate in Sweden, where all forms of surrogacy is illegal. The debate is polemical and harsh, with advocates arguing that surrogacy is defensible on the basis of individual rights and women's right to choose over their own bodies, and those in opposition are convinced on an intersectional basis that women are being used and exposed on the market of surrogacy.The purpose of this study is to investigate the debate on surrogacy in the Swedish context. Using qualitative text analysis, the study aims to increase understanding about the debate over surrogacy by analyzing texts published in Swedish press during 2010-2013. I have analyzed the advocating arguments as well as the oppositional arguments constructing the ongoing debate of surrogacy with a focus on the transnational relations and the discrepancy between the views on altruistic and commercial forms of surrogacy.The findings indicate that surrogacy is in general seen as either a win-win situation or exploitation and confirms earlier intersectional postcolonial research that centers on surrogacy, which highlights a general tendency to not acknowledge the dimensions and intersections of gender, class, race, and ethnicity. This is crucial especially concerning surrogacy is such a transnational phenomenon, where for example (white) Swedes longing for babies go to India and through an Indian surrogate mother become parents. The study shows that the debate is somewhat a minefield, and while being polemical the debate is also very complex.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-209395 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Nilsson, Elina |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Centrum för genusvetenskap |
| 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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