Global surrogacy practices

This report summarises discussions of participants in Thematic Area 5 (Global Surrogacy Practices) of the International Forum on Intercountry Adoption and Global Surrogacy held in August 2014. The Forum brought together advocates of women’s health, children’s rights and human rights; scholars from a range of disciplines; social workers; and legal and policy analysts with expertise in third-party reproduction and/or adoption. To the best of our knowledge, this was the first major convening of scholars, advocates and policy experts to jointly consider these topics and to highlight practices that should be either encouraged or avoided. Participants affirmed the importance of resolving the legal and citizenship status of children resulting from international surrogacy arrangements. In addition, they highlighted the need for greater policy and public attention to a wide range of effects on all the parties involved, particularly women working as surrogates and the children they gestate and bear. In addition to these status issues, concerns deemed particularly troubling included practices posing unnecessary medical risks to surrogate mothers and children; restrictions on personal autonomy of surrogates; the need to maintain records so that participants in surrogacy arrangements retain the option of future contact; the absence of basic screening of commissioning parents to reduce risks of abandonment or abuse of children born via surrogacy; and the absence of regulation or oversight of intermediaries in these commercial arrangements. Participants stressed the importance of these concerns being taken into account in any future Hague Conference convention on intercountry surrogacy

Civil society and global governance : the possibilities for global citizenship

In this article we reassert the role of governance as well as of civil society in the analysis of citizenship. We argue that to analyse global civil society and global citizenship it is necessary to focus on global governance. Just as states may facilitate or obstruct the emergence and development of national civil society, so too global governance institutions may facilitate or obstruct an emerging global civil society. Our key contention is that civil society at the global level thrives through its interaction with strong facilitating institutions of global governance. We start with a discussion of civil society and citizenship within the nation-state, and from there develop a model of global civil society and citizenship. Through analysing the impacts of various modes of global governance, we identify strategically appropriate forms of political and social engagement that best advance the prospects for global citizenship. <br /

Preventing exploitation, promoting equity: findings from the International Forum on Intercountry Adoption and Global Surrogacy 2014

This article summarises the findings of the International Forum on Intercountry Adoption and Global Surrogacy that took place in The Hague over 11–13 August 2014. The Forum brought together 80 of the world's pre-eminent scholars, activists and policy-makers on international adoption and surrogacy to consider the most pressing issues in both fields and posit solutions for them. Participants identified concerns about commercialisation and exploitation, poverty and inequality, and subsidiarity determinations. They recommended better preservation of information, pre- and post-adoption and surrogacy support, implementation of subsidiarity, and accountability of agencies to ensure equity and rights for all involved in international adoption and surrogacy arrangements