University of Illinois, College of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois.
Department of Philosophy, Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois.
Bioethics. 2020 Nov;34(9):960-968. doi: 10.1111/bioe.12808. Epub 2020 Sep 22.
Some commentators maintain that gestational surrogates are not 'mothers' in a way capable of grounding a claim to motherhood. These commentators find that the practices that constitute motherhood do not extend to gestational surrogates. We argue that gestational surrogates should be construed as mothers of the children they bear, even if they fully intend to surrender those children at birth to the care of others. These women stand in a certain relationship to the expected children: they live in changed moral circumstances by reason of their pregnancy, and they engage in the practices said to define motherhood in the post-birth context. By contrast, ovum donors and embryo donors are not similarly 'mothers' because they do not find themselves involved in these circumstances. Not all women involved in three-parent in vitro fertilization qualify as mothers either. Given this analysis of mothering, we note that transmen who gestate children are engaged in mothering activity even if they otherwise function as a father to those children. By itself, this defence of the maternity of gestational surrogates does not confer moral title to the children they bear; gestation would not by itself override the contractual arrangements gestational surrogates have made regarding the disposition of their children. This interpretation of gestational surrogates as mothers does, however, undercut cultural understandings of these women as mere 'vessels', devoid of entitlement to respect as persons and parents. We also consider the meaning of mothering for 'brain-dead' women kept alive to give birth and for the prospect of extracorporeal gestation.
一些评论家认为，代孕母亲在能够主张成为母亲的意义上不是“母亲”。这些评论家认为，构成母亲身份的行为并不延伸到代孕母亲身上。我们认为，代孕母亲应该被视为她们所生育的孩子的母亲，即使她们完全打算在孩子出生时将孩子交给他人照顾。这些女性与预期的孩子之间存在一定的关系：由于怀孕，她们处于改变了的道德环境中，并且她们从事了在产后背景下定义母亲身份的行为。相比之下，卵子捐赠者和胚胎捐赠者则不是这样的“母亲”，因为她们没有发现自己处于这种情况。并非所有参与三亲体外受精的女性都有资格成为母亲。鉴于这种对母性的分析，我们注意到，代孕的跨性别男性即使在其他方面作为孩子的父亲，也在从事母性活动。这种对代孕母亲母性的辩护本身并不能赋予她们所生育的孩子道德上的权利；代孕本身并不能推翻代孕母亲在孩子处置问题上所做的合同安排。然而，这种将代孕母亲视为母亲的解释，削弱了人们对这些女性的文化理解，即她们只是“容器”，作为人或父母，没有获得尊重的权利。我们还考虑了“脑死亡”女性为生育而被维持生命以及体外妊娠前景的母性意义。
