Johnson Katherine M
Department of Sociology, Tulane University, New Orleans, USA.
Sociol Health Illn. 2017 Nov;39(8):1349-1364. doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.12589. Epub 2017 Jun 8.
The new reproductive technologies have significantly impacted definitions of motherhood. Historically, mothers were defined through the act of giving birth, but egg donation, embryo donation, and surrogacy disrupt this. Now multiple women can potentially claim maternity through gestational, genetic, legal, and social ties. Although there is some legal precedent for designating parentage, there is no simple solution to identify the 'true' mother. I address maternal claims-making in third party reproduction via a content analysis of US patient literature for infertile women. Major tensions arise over which link to privilege, especially regarding genetic versus gestational ties in egg donation versus surrogacy; however, adding embryo donation to the analysis illuminates another crucial dimension previously overlooked - that heterosexual women's maternal claims are supported by their partner's paternity claims. Ultimately, I argue that although reproductive organisational discourse carefully constructs credible options for maternal claims-making, contemporary reproductive medicine does not define maternity through assisted reproduction as a truly autonomous connection. Rather, maternity is highly contingent and thus potentially discreditable.
新的生殖技术对母性的定义产生了重大影响。从历史上看，母亲是通过分娩行为来定义的，但卵子捐赠、胚胎捐赠和代孕打破了这一定义。现在，多名女性有可能通过妊娠、基因、法律和社会关系来主张母性。尽管在确定亲子关系方面有一些法律先例，但对于如何识别“真正的”母亲，并没有简单的解决办法。我通过对美国不育女性患者文献的内容分析，探讨第三方生殖中母亲身份的认定问题。在应优先考虑哪种联系方面出现了主要的矛盾，尤其是在卵子捐赠与代孕中基因联系与妊娠联系的问题上；然而，将胚胎捐赠纳入分析揭示了另一个此前被忽视的关键层面——异性恋女性的母性主张得到其伴侣父性主张的支持。最终，我认为，尽管生殖组织话语精心构建了母性主张的可信选项，但当代生殖医学并未通过辅助生殖将母性定义为一种真正自主的联系。相反，母性极具偶然性，因此可能会受到质疑。
