Abstract
The phenomenon of commercial surrogacy is not about to 'wither of its own weirdness', according to George Annas. One of the most celebrated recent court cases which brought commercial surrogacy contracts into the public eyen the tragic Baby M case in New Jersey — 'has provided an impetus for many legislative proposals about surrogacy. In Canada, the Ontario Law Reform Commission has recommended that commercial surrogacy contracts be allowed under court regulation, whereas the Quebec Bar Association unequivocally condemns the practice. In Great Britain, the Warnock Commission, in 1984, recommended criminal prosecution against any surrogate operation, profit or non-profit. In the United States, several state legislatures have debated the practice, proposing laws and legislation ranging from outright prohibition of surrogacy to proposals for its regulation in non-profit situations. However, the purpose of this essay is not to survey the various legal and legislative approaches to commercial surrogacy practices across different constituencies and locales, but to explore the question of what commercial surrogacy means — what insight it offers into the human condition at this point in history. My interest here is to reflect on the meaning of surrogate motherhood in order to find a proper language which allows us to construct an ethical approach to the issue.
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