Producing Moral Palatability in the Mexican Surrogacy Market

Gender and Society 33 (2):273-295 (2019)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Scholars have long debated the relationship between morality and the market. Some argue that morality tempers market interests, while others argue that the market has its own moral order. Meanwhile, feminist scholars have argued that a false binary between altruism, family, and intimacy on the one hand, and the cold calculus of the market on the other, is based in gender ideologies. Norms around motherhood, in particular, emphasize self-sacrifice, love, and altruism in opposition to self-interested market logics. Commercial surrogacy blurs the line between family and commerce and is therefore an ideal setting for studying tensions between altruism and profit. Drawing on ethnographic research and interviews with 114 actors in the Mexican surrogacy industry, I demonstrate that treating altruism and commercialism as dichotomous can further market interests by preserving the moral palatability and profitability of the industry while perpetuating power asymmetries rooted in gender, race, class, and nationality between surrogate mothers and intended parents.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Commodification and Human Interests.Julian J. Koplin - 2018 - Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 15 (3):429-440.
Moral strangers and the health care market.Friedrich Heubel - 1996 - Health Care Analysis 4 (3):197-205.
Surrogate Motherhood: A Trust-Based Approach.Katharina Beier - 2015 - Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 40 (6):633-652.
Morality and the Market in China.John J. Hanafin - 2002 - Business Ethics Quarterly 12 (1):1-18.
Moralizing markets.Richard Bellamy - 1994 - Critical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society 8 (3):341-357.
The Ethics of Altruism.Jonathan Seglow (ed.) - 2004 - F. Cass Publishers.
The Moral Standing of the Market.Amartya Sen - 1985 - Social Philosophy and Policy 2 (2):1.
On the edge of the time bind: Time and market culture.Arlie Russell Hochschild - 2005 - Social Research: An International Quarterly 72 (2):339-354.

Analytics

Added to PP
2020-11-24

Downloads
3 (#1,519,925)

6 months
2 (#668,348)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?