Rights statement: This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Wilkinson, S. (2016), Exploitation in International Paid Surrogacy Arrangements. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 33: 125–145. doi: 10.1111/japp.12138 which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/japp.12138/abstract This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.
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Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Rights statement: © 2015 The Author. Journal of Applied Philosophy published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society for Applied Philosophy. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Final published version, 517 KB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Final published version
Licence: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploitation in international paid surrogacy arrangements
AU - Wilkinson, Stephen
N1 - This is the peer reviewed version of the following article:Wilkinson, S. (2016), Exploitation in International Paid Surrogacy Arrangements. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 33: 125–145. doi: 10.1111/japp.12138 which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/japp.12138/abstract This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.
PY - 2016/5
Y1 - 2016/5
N2 - Many critics have suggested that international paid surrogacy is exploitative. Taking such concerns as its starting point, this paper asks: (1) How defensible is the claim that international paid surrogacy is exploitative and what could be done to make it less exploitative? (2) In the light of the answer to (1), how strong is the case for prohibiting it?Exploitation could in principle be dealt with by improving surrogates’ pay and conditions. However, doing so may exacerbate problems with consent. Foremost amongst these is the argument that surrogates from economically disadvantaged countries cannot validly consent because their background circumstances are coercive. Several versions of this argument are examined and I conclude that at least one has some merit.The paper’s overall conclusion is that while ethically there is something to be concerned about, paid surrogacy is in no worse a position than many other exploitative commercial transactions which take place against a backdrop of global inequality and constrained options, such as poorly paid and dangerous construction work. Hence, there is little reason to single surrogacy out for special condemnation. On a policy level, the case for prohibiting international commercial surrogacy is weak, despite legitimate concerns about consent and background poverty.
AB - Many critics have suggested that international paid surrogacy is exploitative. Taking such concerns as its starting point, this paper asks: (1) How defensible is the claim that international paid surrogacy is exploitative and what could be done to make it less exploitative? (2) In the light of the answer to (1), how strong is the case for prohibiting it?Exploitation could in principle be dealt with by improving surrogates’ pay and conditions. However, doing so may exacerbate problems with consent. Foremost amongst these is the argument that surrogates from economically disadvantaged countries cannot validly consent because their background circumstances are coercive. Several versions of this argument are examined and I conclude that at least one has some merit.The paper’s overall conclusion is that while ethically there is something to be concerned about, paid surrogacy is in no worse a position than many other exploitative commercial transactions which take place against a backdrop of global inequality and constrained options, such as poorly paid and dangerous construction work. Hence, there is little reason to single surrogacy out for special condemnation. On a policy level, the case for prohibiting international commercial surrogacy is weak, despite legitimate concerns about consent and background poverty.
KW - Surrogacy
KW - Exploitation
KW - Ethics
U2 - 10.1111/japp.12138
DO - 10.1111/japp.12138
M3 - Journal article
VL - 33
SP - 125
EP - 145
JO - Journal of Applied Philosophy
JF - Journal of Applied Philosophy
SN - 0264-3758
IS - 2
ER -