Surrogacy and gamete donation: The commoditization of the human body, differences in healthcare systems and cross border reproductive care

This paper aims to analyse the effects of people circulation on the access to assisted reproductive technologies, in terms of state sovereignty and individual autonomy. It does so by addressing issues such as socioeconomic inequalities, national disparities regarding healthcare, the current trends in family structure and the commoditization of both the human body as well as the exchange of biogenetic substances.

The creation of the EU and the Schengen Area, with the contemporary erosion of national borders control has weakened the obstacles to individual mobility. European states have different legislation concerning assisted conception, allowing some technical procedures while criminalizing others. Moreover, we face the emergence of new trends in what regards family configurations, such as same sex couples or single parents.

The combination of these three factors creates new phenomena that challenge both the health status of the reproductive body, and the sovereignty of countries as far as the regulation of medically assisted procreative technologies and the safety of individual citizen are concerned. In fact, couples or individuals travel in order to evade restrictive legislation in their own country, sometimes submitting themselves to more precarious healthcare.

At the same time, poverty and the predominance of market economy lead to the commodification of the individual body and of human life, in which the commercialization of gametes and the payment for surrogacy are only two examples. This means a balance between individual autonomy – namely what concerns the freedom to program their own reproductive life – and the social control of Biomedicine procedures and personal life trajectories.

Building upon my post-doctoral research, I will approach this problem theoretically and through data analysis (ethical committees’ reports, legislation, media articles).