Michael Boylan (left) and Rosemarie Tong (right) on reproductive rights and artificial reproduction.
Boylan and Tong begin by discussing Mary Beth Whitehead, a surrogate mother who decided, after her baby was born, not to uphold her agreement to give the child to adoptive parents. As Boylan and Tong show, this case raises difficult questions about whether surrogate mothers are in a position to give informed consent, whether commercial surrogacy commodifies children or unjustly oppresses women, and the role that biological relatedness plays in determining reproductive rights, among other issues.
Related works
by Boylan:
A Just Society (2004)
with Kevin Brown: Genetic Engineering: Science and Ethics on the New Frontier (2001)
by Tong:
with Lawrence Kaplan: Controlling Our Reproductive Destiny (1994)
“The Overdue Death of a Feminist Chameleon: Taking a Stand on Surrogacy Arrangements” (1990)
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