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Mobility in North American Surrogacy

A Fertile Global Industry

Amy Speier

The United States is a bastion of commercial surrogacy. Intended parents from all over the globe travel to the United States seeking to build a family. However, they must navigate a complicated, convoluted industry that consists of hundreds of fertility clinics, surrogacy, and egg donor agencies, as well as new forms of business that have appeared to ease the efficiency of a long, drawn-out process.

Mobility in North American Surrogacy: A Fertile Global Industry examines the multiple players involved in global surrogacy contracts between international intended parents who opt to create a family with the help and labor of surrogates from the United States. This market remains the final frontier of commercial surrogacy, while other reproductive hubs only allow for altruistic surrogacy. The author considers the mobility and immobility experienced by intended parents, egg donors, surrogates, and professionals whose intimate labor fosters connections across economic, geographic, and social divisions. Based on four years of ethnographic research that also spans the globe, the author argues for a more nuanced consideration of the ethics of surrogacy.

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Lexington Books
Pages: 120 • Trim: 6 x 9
978-1-66695-279-7 • Hardback • February 2025 • $100.00 • (£77.00)
Subjects: Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural, Social Science / Gender Studies, Health & Fitness / Fertility & Infertility

Amy Speier is associate professor of anthropology at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: A Mobile Industry

Chapter 2: Keeping the Parents Moving

Chapter 3: Surrogate Mobility

Chapter 4: Doctors without Borders

Chapter 5: Covid and Global Surrogacy

Conclusion

About the Author

"Amy Speier’s, Mobility in North American Surrogacy: A Fertile Global Industry, takes an inside look at people’s journeys on their paths to parenthood. With a primary focus on men who travel to North America with the hope of having a baby with a gestational surrogate, Speier lays out how shifting global fertility hubs intersect with geographic, socio-cultural, and economic mobilities for intended parents, surrogates, and fertility professionals. This fascinating account illuminates the complexities of cross-border reproductive travel and the relationships built between intended parents and surrogates."


— Diane Tober, The University of Alabama


Mobility in North American Surrogacy

A Fertile Global Industry

Cover Image
Hardback
Summary
Summary
  • The United States is a bastion of commercial surrogacy. Intended parents from all over the globe travel to the United States seeking to build a family. However, they must navigate a complicated, convoluted industry that consists of hundreds of fertility clinics, surrogacy, and egg donor agencies, as well as new forms of business that have appeared to ease the efficiency of a long, drawn-out process.

    Mobility in North American Surrogacy: A Fertile Global Industry examines the multiple players involved in global surrogacy contracts between international intended parents who opt to create a family with the help and labor of surrogates from the United States. This market remains the final frontier of commercial surrogacy, while other reproductive hubs only allow for altruistic surrogacy. The author considers the mobility and immobility experienced by intended parents, egg donors, surrogates, and professionals whose intimate labor fosters connections across economic, geographic, and social divisions. Based on four years of ethnographic research that also spans the globe, the author argues for a more nuanced consideration of the ethics of surrogacy.

Details
Details
  • Lexington Books
    Pages: 120 • Trim: 6 x 9
    978-1-66695-279-7 • Hardback • February 2025 • $100.00 • (£77.00)
    Subjects: Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural, Social Science / Gender Studies, Health & Fitness / Fertility & Infertility
Author
Author
  • Amy Speier is associate professor of anthropology at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents
  • Acknowledgments

    Introduction

    Chapter 1: A Mobile Industry

    Chapter 2: Keeping the Parents Moving

    Chapter 3: Surrogate Mobility

    Chapter 4: Doctors without Borders

    Chapter 5: Covid and Global Surrogacy

    Conclusion

    About the Author

Reviews
Reviews
  • "Amy Speier’s, Mobility in North American Surrogacy: A Fertile Global Industry, takes an inside look at people’s journeys on their paths to parenthood. With a primary focus on men who travel to North America with the hope of having a baby with a gestational surrogate, Speier lays out how shifting global fertility hubs intersect with geographic, socio-cultural, and economic mobilities for intended parents, surrogates, and fertility professionals. This fascinating account illuminates the complexities of cross-border reproductive travel and the relationships built between intended parents and surrogates."


    — Diane Tober, The University of Alabama


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