Interreligious perspectives on Surrogate Motherhood (2025)

infertile citizens

Between precarity and privilege. Claiming motherhood as gay fathers through transnational commercial surrogacy

(In)Fertile Citizens. Anthropological and Legal Challenges of Assisted Reproduction Technologies

Fertility Tourism: The legal side of this phenomenon without borders

Bioethica

Fertility, reproductive or procreative tourism are all new terms which designate a growing trend of the 21st century, namely the movement of people to other countries in order to undergo fertility treatment. Thus, this phenomenon implies multiple legal, bioethical, sociological issues and more, which need to be taken into consideration both by the national policymakers and by the ones seeking for such treatments abroad. This review article will try to offer a bigger picture by focusing on the particularities of the national laws on medical assisted reproduction of four representative EU countries, namely Germany, Austria, Italy and France and on interpreting how the restrictions in one state could boost the fertility tourism industry in other ones. The situation in each country will be depicted in a comparative manner, tackling the legislation, regulations and even relevant domestic jurisprudence on topics such as gamete donation and its anonymity regime, post-mortem reproduction, s...

Breastfeeding and Mothering in Antiquity and Early Byzantium

Routledge, 2024

This volume offers the first comparative, interdisciplinary, and intercultural examination of the lactating woman – biological mother and othermother – in antiquity and early Byzantium. Adopting methodologies and knowledge deriving from a variety of disciplines, the volume’s contributors investigate the close interrelationship between a woman and her lactating breasts, as well as the social, ideological, theological, and medical meanings and uses of motherhood, childbirth, and breastfeeding, along with their visual and literary representations. Breastfeeding and the work of mothering are explored through the study of a great variety of sources, mainly works of Greek-speaking cultures, written and visual, anonymous and eponymous, which were mostly produced between the first and the seventh century AD. Due to their multiple interdisciplinary dimensions, ancient and early Byzantine lactating women are approached through three interconnected thematic strands having a twofold focus: society and ideology, medicine and practice, and art and literature. By developing the model of the lactating woman, the volume offers a new analytical framework for understanding a significant part of the still unwritten cultural history of the period. At the same time, the volume significantly contributes to the emerging fields of breast and motherhood studies. The new and significant knowledge generated in the fields of ancient and Byzantine studies may also prove useful for cultural historians in general and other disciplines, such as literary studies, art history, history of medicine, philosophy, theology, sociology, anthropology and gender studies.

Thoughts on the ethics of gestational surrogacy: perspectives from religions, Western liberalism, and comparisons with adoption

JARG, 2020

Background In gestational surrogacy, a woman incubates an embryo to which she is not genetically related. Genetic distance from both her and the commissioning parents is increased further when donor gametes are employed. Ethical implications vary depending on the extent to which the parents and surrogates share genetic material with the produced child. Purpose This paper seeks to address two primary questions: What do selected ethical frameworks tell us of (1) the relationship between genetic motherhood, gestational motherhood, social motherhood, and marital fidelity? And (2) the effects of gestational surrogacy and gamete donation on our understanding of lineage and heritability? Methods Current literature and thought on these questions were considered through the classical ethics lenses of religion, the adoption standard, and Western liberalism. Results A genetic link between the parents and the child serves to simplify the adoption process (if one is required) and supports a family's desire to resemble as much as possible a traditional biological family, thus providing a minimum set of challenges to religious or conservative hesitations. Conclusion Inasmuch as gestational surrogacy, with or without donor gametes, is tolerated in a variety of ethical contexts; the basis of its acceptance may be the Western liberal celebration of contractual agreement.

Assisted Reproductive Technologies: Comparing Abrahamic Monotheistic Religions

Asian Bioethics Review

The impact of culture and religion on sexual and reproductive health and behavior has been a developing area of study in contemporary time. Therefore, it is crucial for people using reproductive procedures to understand the religious and theological perspectives on issues relating to reproductive health. This paper compares different perspectives of three Abrahamic faiths, i.e., Judaism, Christianity, and Islam on ARTs. Procreation, family formation, and childbirth within the context of marriage have all been advocated by these three major religions of the world. Judaism permits the use of all assisted reproductive technologies when the oocyte and sperm come from the husband and wife, respectively. The different denominations of Christianity have diverse views on reproductive practices. Although the Vatican does not approve of assisted reproduction, Protestant, Anglican, and other religious groups are free to use it. ARTs are acceptable in Sunni Islam, although they can only be carried out if the couples are married. Shia Islam, however, permits third-party donations to married couples under specific restrictions. This comparison reveals that while the three major world religions utilize assisted reproduction in distinct ways, there are also many comparable aspects of each religion.

Sex and Sanctity in the Apocryphal Acts of Andrew: A Christian Bedtrick and its Biblical Bedrock

Journal of Early Christian Studies, 2024

In the Apocryphal Acts of Andrew a familiar double plot of sex and mistaken identity features Maximilla, a recently converted wife, tricking her pagan husband, Aegeates, into bedding her masked maid in order to retain the purity of her own bed. In resorting to this stratagem of sexual deception, the heroine of this tale behaves in a manner that contemporary Christians would (and did) find scandalous and unacceptable. This article investigates how this unique, sanctified bedtrick mobilizes different traditions (both Greco-Roman and biblical), subverts the predominant model of the Christian wife, and constructs an entirely peculiar, alternative ideal. The Christian bedtrick evokes mythical and novelistic patterns but presents its instigator as paradoxically chaste-the opposite of her depraved analogues in myth and novel. The text also evokes biblical bedtricks, but only to challenge the emphasis on survival through procreation at all cost that underpins most of the bedtricks in Genesis. The article argues, finally, that the bridal switch between Rachel and Leah in Genesis 29 provides the closest biblical parallel for Maximilla's strategy. The striking apocryphal bedtrick also bears intriguing similarities to two texts which clearly hark back to the bridal switch of Genesis 29: an ancient Jewish "novel" (Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 12.154-236) and an exegetical vignette from rabbinic midrash (Lamentations Rabbah Proem 24) that employ "holy" bedtricks in the interests of individual or collective salvation.

2015, Venetia Kantsa, Lina Papadopoulou, Giulia Zanini, (In)fertile Citizens. Anthropological and legal challenges of assisted reproduction technologies

2015

(In)Fertile Citizens reconsiders topics of reproductive citizenship in relation to the specific cultural contexts, local/global exchanges and social/technological networks they emerge from. The book aims to explore these issues adopting two axes of research. The first one (Part I and II) calls for cooperation between anthropological and legal studies and aims at exploring its potentialities in the field of reproductive rights and ART. Papers by Joan Bestard, Judit Sándor, Lina Papadopoulou, Enrica Bracchi, Vasiliki Kokota, Anna Carastathis, Michael Nebeling Petersen, Aspa Chalkidou and Despina Naziri closely examine issues of politics, citizenship and human rights such as: (i) politics of reproduction and exclusions/inclusions in terms of age, gender, sexuality, economic background, (ii) subtle social mechanisms leading to exclusion of (in)fertile citizens, especially women, (iii) human rights concerns and laws that define who is eligible to become parent and who is not, (iv) the socially constructed value of “having children from one’s own genetic material” and how this is being informed by the legal framework, (v) the medicalisation of conception as both an opportunity and a threat for personal autonomy, (vi) the ways in which reproductive “freedom” as a manifestation of one’s autonomy is transformed into a “right” to assisted reproduction, (vii) which kinship units are to be valued and supported according to the local cultural-legal-religious contexts (the couple, the mother or father to be, single mothers, “other” parents, the child, the nuclear family, the extended family, etc). A second axis of interest (Part III and IV) invites to reflect upon the ethnographic and analytical value of comparison, by investigating ART implementation in different neighbouring European and non-European countries and transnational reproductive networks emerging within, across and beyond them. Papers by Lia Lombardi, Christodoulos Bellas and Albert Dicran Matossian, Ivi Daskalaki, Aglaia Chatjouli, Sven Bergmann, Polina Vlasenko, Burcu Mutlu, Giula Zanini examine the availability of infertility treatments and of specific techniques and procedures in each national context. Individual responses to ART are the result of a number of factors including the way in which people experience infertility and reproductive expectations, the understandings they display of different techniques and the practical, legal and moral accessibility of treatments both locally and translocally.

An overview of the underlying legal and psychological issues of surrogacy in Islam

Humanities & social sciences reviews, 2022

Purpose of the study: This paper attempted to deal with the issue of Surrogacy from various angles by considering the very essence of Islamic law, i.e., of Shariah. Procreation has considered sacred in Islam; no doubt, it is one of the five fundamental objectives of Shariah (Islamic law), notwithstanding the protection of self, religion, honor, and property. In Muslim societies, religion strongly influences behavior, culture, practices, and policy-making; therefore, according to the Islamic viewpoint, just legitimate pregnancy would result from intermingling sperm and ovum of a legitimately wedded couple. Research methods: The methodology applied in the discussion is a critical analysis based on inductive and deductive approaches to the collected data. The data for this study has been collected from various secondary sources like Academic Research Papers, Research Journals, and other Electronic Sources. Main findings: the conclusion arrived at in the article is that Surrogacy is of various categories, some of which may be Islamically valid and some others invalid. In light of the discussion, it is also concluded that Surrogacy also leads to psychological confusion over the question of motherhood, which Islam considers the highest form of human love and compassion. Application of the study: This study would leave significant implications for legal and social dimensions. The only way to minimize the differences of opinions over any issue in Islamic jurisprudence is deliberation over the issue concerned from the angle of the objectives of Sharīᶜah (Maqāsid al-Sharīᶜah). The issue of Surrogacy as to its validity or invalidity from the Islamic perspective may be resolved in this way. Therefore, the study would doubtlessly help reduce social, physiological, and legal issues based on surrogate practice. Originality and novelty of the study: The least attention has been given to legal and psychological issues in the existing literature. The present study aims to deal with the legal, psychological, and even social issues caused by the practice of Surrogacy. Therefore, this is the first study that has investigated the practice of Surrogacy from multiple perspectives, particularly analyzing them in the framework of the objectives of Sharīᶜah.

Social and ethical determinants of sexuality: 4. Sexuality and families

The European journal of contraception & reproductive health care : the official journal of the European Society of Contraception, 2012

To investigate the evolving relationship between sexuality and family formation. New family units exist today whose impact on society needs to be explored. For each main area researched (anthropology, biology, sociology, sexology, ethics) we identified articles dealing with family formation, sexuality and reproduction using PubMed, ScienceDirect, Google, religious websites and texts. The three monotheistic religions and the cultures derived from these have considered sexuality as focused on reproduction. Presently, sexuality has acquired new dimensions, independent from reproduction, as contraception and IVF have separated procreation and sexuality. Thus, the very concept of family has been expanded and so-called 'unusual families' have proved not to be a danger per se for children born and raised within them. Human sexuality has moved away from having a purely reproductive function, but remains a powerful bond keeping families together, irrespective of the gender identity a...