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Money Matters: Commerce and Altruism in the Mexican Surrogacy Industry

Sat, August 12, 8:30 to 10:10am, Palais des congrès de Montréal, Floor: Level 5, 510D

Abstract

Sociological studies of commercial surrogacy have repeatedly demonstrated the pervasiveness of gift rhetoric and moral framings of altruism (Ragoné 1994; Markens 2007; Rudrappa and Collins 2015; Jacobson 2016). But these studies are geographically and methodologically limited. Drawing on data from a multi-sited ethnographic study of the commercial surrogacy industry in Mexico, this paper shows how actors establish and maintain a moral framing of surrogacy in a transnational context through relational work. I demonstrate that a moral framing of surrogacy as altruistic leads to a discursive dichotomy between good, altruistic surrogate mothers and untrustworthy, financially motivated surrogate mothers. I argue that this dichotomy is financially and symbolically harmful to surrogate mothers in that it denies the complexity of their motivations and discourages them from seeking better wages.

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