• Philosophy

Considering the narratives of neoliberalism that infuse and inform transnational gestational surrogacy, Bronwyn Parry's analysis is both timely and insightful. Parry demonstrates that overarching analytical frameworks employed by bioethicists to determine the potential for exploitation in transnational reproductive labour practices miss important contextual factors and the nuances of lived experience.1 Furthermore, the blanket assumptions often made by Western researchers about clinical labourers in the developing world as being financially and physically exploited under oppressive and unstable outsourced service contracts are inadequate analyses of a highly complex and varied set of social, physical, familial and medical relationships.

In order to initially unsettle the standard ‘narratives of neoliberalism’, in her paper Parry offers two examples of gamete donors: sperm donors for an elite Californian sperm bank and Indian gamete donors in Mumbai. Ultimately, what Parry's study demonstrates is that questions regarding the potential for economic exploitation fall on unsurprisingly gendered lines. Indian sperm donors belong to a much more advantaged social and economic class when compared with their oocyte-donating counterparts. Their motivations for engaging in sperm donation are driven by altruistic concerns regarding human welfare. In stark contrast, women in Mumbai who agree to become oocyte donors are the most disadvantaged in the city, both economically and …