Gestational Surrogacy in Spain: Parental Transformations in the XXI Century in Spain

Gestational surrogacy is an increasingly way to access to motherhood and parenthood. This paper deepens, from a feminist approach, on the questions that surrogacy raises about two key concepts of Western society: motherhood and family.

First, gestational surrogacy challenges the concept of "motherhood" as socially has been constructed and accepted, since it separates the roles of gestational motherhood, social motherhood and genetic motherhood. It also raises a challenge to the existing heteronormative ideals about motherhood the way that traditionally has been understood. The surrogate, rejects social motherhood, leaving the care of the baby to someone else, therefore, she rejects the ideals that place women as primary caregivers (Teman, 2010).

Secondly, surrogacy also states that family becomes a social construction and not a natural product. Through surrogacy, family happens to be created through the market, being no longer a question of destiny but becoming a choice.

Finally, although the Spanish law on human assisted reproduction does not allow surrogacy, since more than twenty years ago Spaniards have been creating families through it. This paper will also give some outputs about the general situation of surrogacy in Spain and its implications. This paper is part of an I+D research project (CSO2014- 55556-P) which holds the first survey about the topic, primary data from this survey about the sociodemographic profile of families created through surrogacy as well as about their experience will be presented.