ELIZABETH S.

ANDERSON

Is Women's Labor a Commodity?

In this article the author points out how the rapid growth of commercial surrogacy has raised
concerns regarding the proper scope of the market. A commercial surrogate mother is anyone
who is paid money to bear a child for other people and terminate her parental rights, so that the
others may raise the child as exclusively their own. This article objected to commercial
surrogacy on the ground that it improperly treats children and women's reproductive capacities as
commodities.

Four main defenses of practice of Commercial surrogacy-

1. There is shortage of children for adoption and difficulty of qualifying as adoptive parents.
Commercial surrogacy might be the only hope for some people to raise a family.

2. Two fundamental human rights support commercial surrogacy: the right to procreate and
freedom of contract. An individual should have the right to make whatever arrangements he/she
wish for the use of his/her bodies and the reproduction of children, so long as the children
themselves are not harmed.

3. The labor of the surrogate mother is said to be a labor of love. Her altruistic acts should be
permitted and encouraged.

4. Commercial surrogacy is no different from artificial insemination, adoption, wet-nursing, and

day care.

Argument of the Article-

1. Women’s Labor as a Commodity- Commercial surrogacy raises new ethical issues that it
represents an invasion of the market into a new sphere of conduct. It women's labor treated as a
commodity means that women performing are degraded. It reduces surrogate mothers from
persons worthy of respect and consideration to objects of use by which women's claims to
respect and consideration violated.

2. Children as Commodities- Children are degraded and their status is reduced to that of
commodities. Parental rights understood not as trusts and fundamental love but more like
property rights. It also promotes parental interests over the interests of the child.