The Odd Allies? Common Arguments and Different Strategies in the Transnational Campaigns of Feminist Organizations and Religious Authorities Against Surrogacy

The dramatic advances in assisted reproductive technologies (ART) have opened heated public debates at the national level that often overflow in the transnational political arena. One of the most controversial issues is the regulation of surrogacy, a practice whereby a woman (surrogate mother) becomes pregnant to give her child to somebody else (intended parents) after birth. While NGOs, leading political parties, and several religious authorities have denounced the exploitative character of surrogacy practices and the miserable conditions imposed to surrogate mothers, infertility clinics and associations of intended parents have stressed the women’s freedom of choice and the economic benefits provided by surrogacy arrangements to needy women. In consideration of the fact that the regulation of surrogacy is a relatively new topic in the policy agenda of Western and non-Western countries, cleavages, coalitions, and repertoires of action are not stabilized, and unlikely informal alliances between different groups have taken shape. Religious authorities and feminist associations have been some of the most engaged actors in opposing surrogacy, and they have taken a leading role in asking for an international ban for surrogacy practices. Although feminist organizations and major religious authorities have often contrasted each other in the debates on morality issues, their current mobilizations against surrogacy show a mutual rapprochement. Whereas feminist groups have downplayed the principle of women’s reproductive autonomy that have characterized post-war feminism, most religious authorities have left aside formal religious norms to stress several principles shared by contemporary feminism in surrogacy debates, most notably the opposition to market logic, the rejection of liberal individualism on reproductive matters, and the emphasis on the special bond between mother and unborn child. This paper would like to present, compare, and discuss the arguments used by feminist organizations and major religious authorities in demanding an international ban for surrogacy. Through a multi-disciplinary perspective embracing the insights of different bodies of scholarship, principally, but not exclusively, sociology of religion, values politics, and gender studies, the ensuing analysis would individuate the key values supported by the major feminist organizations and religious authorities in the public debate on surrogacy, explain the similarities and differences between the values that they have defended, and discuss how they shape their different strategies of actions. This paper aims to explore the cross-fertilization of secular and religious worldviews in the current post-secular age and wishes to understand if and to what extent common ethical concerns on the developments of most advanced bioethical technologies can become a terrain of fruitful dialogue between secular and religious actors.