Brown bodies, white babies : the politics of cross-racial surrogacy / Laura Harrison.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Harrison, Laura, 1983- author.

Series:

Intersections (New York, N.Y.)

Intersections : transdisciplinary perspectives on genders and sexualities

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Surrogate mothers.

Surrogate motherhood--Economic aspects.

Surrogate motherhood.

Surrogate motherhood--Social aspects.

Human reproductive technology--Economic aspects.

Human reproductive technology.

Race.

Physical Description:

viii, 285 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : New York University Press, [2016]

Summary:

Brown Bodies, White Babies focuses on the practice of cross-racial gestational surrogacy, in which a woman carries a pregnancy for intended parents of a different race. While the potentials of reproductive technologies are far from predetermined, the ways in which these technologies are currently deployed often serve the interests of dominant groups through the creation of white, middle-class, heteronormative families. Laura Harrison provides an important understanding of the work of women of color as surrogates, connecting their labor to the history of racialized reproduction in the United States. This book provides a multi-sited analysis that includes legal cases of contested surrogacy, racialized reproductive labor, the role of genetics in the assisted reproduction industry, and the recent turn toward reproductive tourism. Brown Bodies, White Babies ultimately critiques the new potentials for parenthood that call the very contours of kinship into question. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: cross-racial gestational surrogacy

The path to gestational surrogacy: naturalizing the new normal

"Mommy's tummy was broken": surrogacy enters the mainstream

From mammies to mommy machines: gender and racialized reproductive labor

The woman or the egg? Comparing surrogacy and egg donation databases

"I am the baby's real mother": reproductive tourism and the transnational construction of kinship

Conclusion: from embryo to "pre-born American".

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781479808175

1479808172

9781479894864

1479894869

OCLC:

946161384