New Book - Surrogacy: A Human Rights Violation - The Center for Bioethics & Culture Network

Renate Klein, an original signatory of the #StopSurrogacyNow Statement, has a new book, Surrogacy: A Human Rights Violation, publishing in November 2017.

About the Book

Surrogacy is heavily promoted by the stagnating IVF industry which seeks new markets for women over 40, and gay men who believe they have a ‘right’ to their own children and ‘family foundation’. Pro-surrogacy groups in rich countries such as Australia and Western Europe lobby for the shift to commercial surrogacy. Their capitalist neo-liberal argument is that a well-regulated fertility industry would avoid the exploitative practices of poor countries.

In Surrogacy: A Human Rights Violation, Renate Klein details her objections to surrogacy by examining the short- and long-term harms done to the so-called surrogate mothers, egg providers, and the female partner in a heterosexual commissioning couple. The author also looks at the rights of children and compares surrogacy to (forced) adoption practices. She concludes that surrogacy, whether so-called altruistic or commercial, can never be ethical and outlines forms of resistance to Stop Surrogacy Now.

About Renate Klein

Dr. Renate Klein is a long-term women’s health researcher and has written extensively on reproductive technologies and feminist theory over the last 30 years. A biologist and social scientist, she was Associate Professor in Women’s Studies at Deakin University in Melbourne. She is a co-founder of FINRRAGE (Feminist International Network of Resistance to Reproductive and Genetic Engineering) and an original signatory to Stop Surrogacy Now.