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Семинар: "Surrogate commerce versus surrogate medicine: professional jurisdiction, conceptions of control and reputational risks in gestational surrogacy markets in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan". Докладчик: Аля Гусева

Мероприятие завершено

20 марта состоится семинар «Социология рынков» Лаборатории экономико-социологических исследований. С докладом «Surrogate commerce versus surrogate medicine: professional jurisdiction, conceptions of control and reputational risks in gestational surrogacy markets in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan» выступит

Аля ГусеваPhD, доцент Департамента социологии Бостонского Университета (Boston University), ведущий научный сотрудник ЛЭСИ НИУ ВШЭ

Based on more than 40 in-depth interviews with fertility doctors, managers of surrogacy agencies and family lawyers and participant observation at three reproductive conferences in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, I examine the legal, moral and relational aspects of surrogacy and particularly the challenges that medical professionals (fertility doctors) face in exerting control over the ethically fraught practice, while maintaining their reputations as caring and uncorrupted professionals.

Fertility doctors draw their main income from the working horse of reproductive technologies, IVF, and they find surrogacy “too messy,” a minefield with possible future legal or relational problems to manage, for which most of them are simply not prepared. Many emphasize that they limit their responsibilities to the medical aspects of surrogacy (prenatal medical testing and IVF), and leave the rest – financial compensation to surrogates, relationships between surrogates and intended parents, etc. -- to specialized surrogacy agencies. Agencies act as brokers between clinics, intended parents and surrogates. They help maintain symbolic boundaries between medical help and commercial service, and between reproduction and the market. Distancing surrogate medicine from surrogate commerce may also help legitimize surrogacy as a practice. Fertility doctors are frequently heard emphatically stating that they do not earn any money on surrogacy beyond the cost of medical procedures.

On the other hand, some doctors are starting to get concerned with unrestrained commercialism among surrogacy agencies. They particularly fear that the lure of profits can result in substandard, unethical or illegal practices, and lead to public scandals. This, in turn, could tarnish reputation of individual clinics, or even the whole fertility industry, and result in overly restrictive legislation. Some clinics started to insource -- creating their own surrogacy agencies, making a choice in favor of “hierarchies” over “markets.”

While the three countries share a lot of similarities in the ways in which surrogacy is regulated and practiced (only gestational surrogacy is legal, and there are strict medical grounds for intended parents seeking surrogacy), there are important “field” differences: Kazakh clinics for the most part outsource to agencies, Ukrainian clinics started to insource, and in Russia the situation is mixed. I am testing the hypothesis that the difference has much to do with Ukraine’s greater openness to the global flow of intended parents. Greater demand lead to frenzied proliferation of agencies, lower standards across the board and a greater sense of poorly-controlled risk. Several years ago, Ukrainian surrogacy market was rocked by a handful of highly publicized scandals, most involving foreign parents. Today, Ukrainian clinics started to insource to exercise greater control over surrogacy practices and reduce possible reputational risks. In Kazakhstan, the vast majority of couples seeking surrogacy are local or from the neighboring countries -- Central Asia or Russia, the number of agencies is small and stable, they do not advertise, and the doctors believe that they both simplify their lives and protect their reputations from possible fallouts by distancing themselves from surrogate commerce while sticking to surrogate medicine.



Языки доклада: английский и русский

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Адрес: ул. Мясницкая, д. 11, ауд. 325.

Начало в 18.15.

Заказать пропуска можно по e-mail: egudova@hse.ru

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