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Rights-holders or refugees? Do gay men need reproductive justice?

A thriving North American industry has emerged designed to help gay men become biological parents through surrogacy and egg donation. Taking as given that gay men have the same ethical right to pursue such reproductive technologies as heterosexual couples or individuals, this article asks whether ac...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Russell, Camisha
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6491715/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31061902
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rbms.2018.07.001
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author Russell, Camisha
author_facet Russell, Camisha
author_sort Russell, Camisha
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description A thriving North American industry has emerged designed to help gay men become biological parents through surrogacy and egg donation. Taking as given that gay men have the same ethical right to pursue such reproductive technologies as heterosexual couples or individuals, this article asks whether access to egg donation and surrogacy for gay men specifically could be considered a matter not just of (consumer) rights, but of justice. The idea of shifting discourse about reproduction from the language of ‘rights’ to that of ‘justice’ is most notably articulated by women of colour. Their call for reproductive justice seeks to expand discussion beyond the narrow right to an abortion (as a negative privacy right) to encompass broader, positive rights, such as the rights to bear healthy children and to raise them in safe environments. What, if anything, might we learn from reproductive justice movements about how to frame gay men's desire/demand for access to surrogacy? While I find several productive connections between the two groups, two factors lead me to argue against understanding gay access to surrogacy as a matter of justice: first, the necessary reliance on women's reproductive labour; and second, the largely non-structural causes of gay couples' inability to reproduce. Nevertheless, by considering two driving forces behind gay male assisted reproduction – social norms favouring biological family formation and the need for family security – I ultimately conclude that a basis for solidarity exists between gay men and reproductive justice movements. That basis is a concept like ‘procreative liberty’.
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spelling pubmed-64917152019-05-06 Rights-holders or refugees? Do gay men need reproductive justice? Russell, Camisha Reprod Biomed Soc Online Autonomy and Justice A thriving North American industry has emerged designed to help gay men become biological parents through surrogacy and egg donation. Taking as given that gay men have the same ethical right to pursue such reproductive technologies as heterosexual couples or individuals, this article asks whether access to egg donation and surrogacy for gay men specifically could be considered a matter not just of (consumer) rights, but of justice. The idea of shifting discourse about reproduction from the language of ‘rights’ to that of ‘justice’ is most notably articulated by women of colour. Their call for reproductive justice seeks to expand discussion beyond the narrow right to an abortion (as a negative privacy right) to encompass broader, positive rights, such as the rights to bear healthy children and to raise them in safe environments. What, if anything, might we learn from reproductive justice movements about how to frame gay men's desire/demand for access to surrogacy? While I find several productive connections between the two groups, two factors lead me to argue against understanding gay access to surrogacy as a matter of justice: first, the necessary reliance on women's reproductive labour; and second, the largely non-structural causes of gay couples' inability to reproduce. Nevertheless, by considering two driving forces behind gay male assisted reproduction – social norms favouring biological family formation and the need for family security – I ultimately conclude that a basis for solidarity exists between gay men and reproductive justice movements. That basis is a concept like ‘procreative liberty’. Elsevier 2018-08-16 /pmc/articles/PMC6491715/ /pubmed/31061902 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rbms.2018.07.001 Text en © 2018 The Author http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
spellingShingle Autonomy and Justice
Russell, Camisha
Rights-holders or refugees? Do gay men need reproductive justice?
title Rights-holders or refugees? Do gay men need reproductive justice?
title_full Rights-holders or refugees? Do gay men need reproductive justice?
title_fullStr Rights-holders or refugees? Do gay men need reproductive justice?
title_full_unstemmed Rights-holders or refugees? Do gay men need reproductive justice?
title_short Rights-holders or refugees? Do gay men need reproductive justice?
title_sort rights-holders or refugees? do gay men need reproductive justice?
topic Autonomy and Justice
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6491715/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31061902
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rbms.2018.07.001
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