ABSTRACT

Gestational surrogacy exposes a group of reproductively healthy women to highly medicalized assisted reproductive interventions. This paper conducts a close examination of the medicalization of the surrogate body to better understand how women who act as surrogates navigate issues of power, autonomy, and control. Drawing on thirty-three in-depth interviews with women who were surrogates in the United States, I find women construct a highly scientific and embodied expertise of knowledge to prepare for, and execute, their responsibilities as a surrogate. I demonstrate that surrogates have a unique relationship to the issues of power and control that arise in the medicalization process. This distinctive orientation to medicalization does not render the issues of power and control obsolete, rather it contextualizes how women navigate these issues within their gendered and embodied labor.

摘要

妊娠代孕使一群生殖健康的妇女接受高度医学化的辅助生殖干预。本文对代孕体的医学化进行了仔细研究，以更好地了解充当代孕者的女性如何应对权力、自主和控制等问题。通过对美国代孕女性的 33 次深入访谈，我发现女性构建了高度科学和具身性的知识专长，以准备和履行她们作为代理人的责任。我证明代理人与医疗过程中出现的权力和控制问题有着独特的关系。这种对医疗化的独特定位并没有使权力和控制问题变得过时，