BETWEEN STRANGERS: Surrogate Mothers, Expectant Fathers, and Brave New Babies

by Lori Andrews ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 1988

A polemical history of the surrogate motherhood phenomenon: its birth, successes, and disasters, the legal controversies surrounding it, and the oddly assorted individuals and organizations that support or condemn it. Lawyer/journalist Andrews (New Conceptions, 1983) takes a positive view of surrogacy, contending that its criminalization sends the message that women are incapable of making informed reproductive decisions. She is puzzled that many feminists (including New York's powerful NOW chapter) oppose surrogacy as ""exploitive"" of women, even though they fought for the right of women to control their own bodies. Claiming that only one percent of surrogacy arrangements have created the highly publicized legal brouhahas that have produced calls for criminalization, Andrews supplies brief life histories of various highly motivated women who have found surrogate motherhood a positive experience. She claims that the Mary Beth Whitehead situation and others like it would not have occurred had legislation been enacted to protect the rights of all parties and assure they had given informed consent. She favors a bill (currently vegetating in New York's legislature) that calls for psychological and medical testing of all parties and prior judicial review, and allows the surrogate to make all medical decisions (including abortion) during pregnancy, but denies her the option of keeping the child after it is born. An important--if slanted--overview of the emotional, ethical, and legal ramifications of a controversial biotechnological innovation. (For a contrasting view on surrogacy, see Rothman's Recreating Motherhood, below.)

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1988

Categories: NONFICTION