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Background: Mothers with multiple sclerosis are at increased risk of preterm birth and small for gestational age infants. Both conditions pose a risk of morbidity, including early-life infections. Objective: This study aimed to assess the risk of infections in the first 3 years of life among children born preterm or small for gestational age to mothers with multiple sclerosis. Methods: We used Danish national health registers to establish the study cohort of all births by women with MS born from 1995 to 2023. In Cox regression models, we estimated hazard ratios (HRs) of infections in preterm or small for gestational age children. Results: Preterm children had an adjusted HR of 1.49 (95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.15–1.93) for hospital-diagnosed infection and 0.88 (95% CI 0.72–1.06) for antibiotic prescriptions. Small for gestational age children had an adjusted HR of 0.81 (95% CI 0.54–1.22) for hospital-diagnosed infection and 1.07 (95% CI 0.82–1.38) for antibiotic prescriptions. Conclusion: Children born preterm to mothers with multiple sclerosis had an increased risk of hospital-diagnosed infections in the first 3 years of life, but not of mild-to-moderate infections evaluated on prescriptions. Children born small for gestational age did not have an increased risk of infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, recognition of same-sex relationships and non-normative families has increased alongside greater access to reproductive technologies. Despite this progress, surrogacy, a potential path to parenthood for gay couples, remains banned in many countries. Research indicates that gay couples, facing legal restrictions, often seek reproductive services abroad, navigating complex legal, political and sociocultural contexts in both their home and destination countries. However, existing research lacks cross-country comparisons that explore how different contexts shape gay couples' reproductive practices. This study enhances our theoretical understanding of the intricate interplay between social structure and social interactions. It explores how normative family conceptions, ingrained in legal frameworks, societal norms and cultural values at the macro level, profoundly influence the (normalising) practices of couples at the micro level. Empirically, this study compares Germany and Israel, where gay couples face starkly different challenges. Germany universally prohibits surrogacy, while Israel permits it, although not for gay men during my interviews. Drawing on interviews with couples from both countries who engaged surrogates abroad, this study analyses their struggles for legal recognition and social visibility as 'gay father families'. In both countries, couples navigate legal, political and sociocultural contexts differently, encapsulated in a process termed 'becoming a gay father family', involving concealing surrogacy and appropriating heteronormative family narratives. The data indicate that the couples' social interactions reflect and reinforce a discernible normative shift from heteronormativity to repronormativity in the context of assisted reproduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commercial surrogacy marketizes life's work. In the era of neo-liberalism, women's work, which is often intimately performed within a heterosexual marriage in exchange of support, now remains a principal avenue to earn money. This form of feminization of labor has led to the emergence of markets for women's reproductive capacities. The present study stems from my ethnographic journey into the lives of the women who work as surrogate mothers in India. The narratives presented in the paper emerge from my prolonged fieldwork in Anand, Gujarat. It engages with the experiences, understandings, and the voices of these women, who I term reproductive laborers, in order to examine the notion of putting one's reproductive capacities in this intimate market for money. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The commercial surrogacy industry in India administers in a way where the women working as surrogate mothers live in surrogate houses. It is a space deliberately designed and run by either the fertility clinics or a third-party agency, where the surrogate mothers are required to stay for the entire gestation period. The surrogacy industry in India utilizes the vulnerability of couples who do not or cannot have children, in order to prepare valuable and docile bodies which can serve as a platform for accumulation of wealth. This paper draws from an ethnographic inquiry of the surrogate housing facilities functioning in two cities in India: Anand and Bengaluru. The paper will argue that the surrogacy industry in India produces geographies of carceral domesticity by deploying disciplining apparatuses governing the day-to-day mundane activities of the reproductive laborers. The medical experts often resort to the narrative that these women cannot be trusted with the safety of the babies they carry, hence, justifying their confinement in the surrogate house. Further, the possibility that the surrogate mothers may develop emotional attachments to the babies they carry, which in turn, will endanger the surrogacy arrangements, also runs through such narratives of regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vulnerability is a pivotal concept for understanding transnational commercial surrogacy and the ethics of reproductive travel. While implicitly recognizing vulnerability as important, existing scholarship falls short of understanding the dynamism of vulnerability. Placing our empirical analysis in conjunction with the rich theoretical literature on this concept, we explore vulnerability in surrogacy arrangements in India as a "mode of openness," defined by its multilayeredness and context specificity. We focus on two retellings of vulnerability. In the first narrative, we analyse the journey of an intended parent who becomes an agent, while in the second narrative, we focus on the trajectory of a surrogate and egg donor becoming an agent. In both narratives, the layers of vulnerability across different interconnected circuits of reproduction—of intended parent, agent, and surrogate—are explicated. Our analysis illustrates the complex and conflicting meanings of vulnerability and illustrates vulnerability as an instigator of agency and resistance; how it can propel upward social mobility and animate attempts to transform an unjust system, but also how such individual agency and empowerment may serve to uphold exploitative relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To compare fetal and neonatal cardiac morphology in fetuses of mothers with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) with the controls Patients and methods: Pregnant women at average risk of GDM underwent 100-g, 3-h-OGTT at 24-28 weeks of gestation for diagnosis of GDM. BothGDMgroup and the control group underwent fetal echocardiography at 32-36 weeks to assess cardiac dimensions. The neonates underwent echocardiography within 48 h after birth to assess cardiac morphology. Results: A total of 154 pregnant women were recruited, including 60 in the GDM group and 94 in the control group. All of the study group were well controlled for GDM. Most baseline characteristics of both groups were comparable. All obstetric outcomes were not significantly different between the two groups. Morphological cardiac dimensions in the fetuses and newborns of both groups were also not significant different. Subgroup analysis in the study group showed no significantly different in cardiac morphology between the group with diet control and that of insulin control. Conclusion: Fetal and neonatal cardiac morphologic changes among mothers with well-controlled GDM are not significantly different from those in the controls. It is possible that good control of maternal blood glucose can prevent fetal and neonatal cardiac abnormalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenon of single-father families created by surrogacy is a social event that lacks visibility. The dominant thinking regarding parenting is framed by heteronormativity, which establishes couplehood of different sexes as the acceptable and biologically grounded way to reproduce and raise children, leading to the lack of visibility of single men who want to be or are already fathers. For these men, there are two main possible paths: adoption or surrogacy. In this occasional essay, we will discuss the importance of creating social visibility for single men who want to become or are already fathers through surrogacy to provide enlightening information about the phenomenon, creating positive models for single gay or straight men who choose this method to fulfill their parenting ambitions. We will begin by establishing some introductory social considerations, followed by some explanations for why single men wish to pursue surrogacy and their experiences. We then provide research results from the field and respective conclusions. We argue that creating social visibility for single parents through surrogacy is a form of social change that could facilitate the deconstruction of traditionalist views of the concept of family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, tobacco consumption has been a public health concern in the world, especially South East Asia Region, which currently accounts for 81% of global smokeless tobacco users and is home to >22% of global adult smokers aged >=15 years.[1], [2] Asia is not only the world's largest tobacco producer but also the largest tobacco consumer.[3] The tobacco industry in this region has been facilitated by complex cross-border factors, including trade liberalization, direct foreign investment, global marketing, transnational tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship.[4] Aggressive marketing by the tobacco industry has boosted sales of tobacco products to unprecedented heights.[5] This article is a story of the evolution and current status of surrogate advertisement for tobacco products in the South East Asia Region and the challenges faced by national policy-makers in their efforts to combat this menace. J Bus Manag Commer Res, 2015 Jun 1; IV: 1-8. 18 Kumar A. Menace of surrogate advertising of Gutka-tobacco brand advertisement and resultant rampant selling bypassing Gutka ban in State of, UP. More than 70% of tobacco consumers reported that advertisements by tobacco companies inspired their tobacco brand and product preferences, while >80% agreed that advertisements can alter consumer perceptions about the product advertised.[8], [22] Areca Nut - The New Face of Surrogate Advertisement for Tobacco A recent player in the surrogate advertisement game is the areca nut, commonly grown in India, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia, and South Pacific islands. India also had the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994, section 7(2), which prohibited advertising tobacco products, alcohol, and other intoxicants. [Extracted from the article]

Background: Previous studies suggest a 3- to-10-fold increased risk of multiple sclerosis (MS) in offspring of mothers with diabetes mellitus (DM). Objectives: To examine MS risk in offspring of diabetic mothers, overall and according to type of maternal DM, that is, pregestational DM or gestational DM, as well as to examine MS risk among offspring of diabetic fathers. Methods: The study cohort included all 1,633,436 singletons born in Denmark between 1978 and 2008. MS diagnoses were identified in the Danish Multiple Sclerosis Registry, and parental DM diagnoses in the National Patient Register. We used Cox proportional hazards regression analyses to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association of parental DM with MS risk in the offspring. Results: MS risk among individuals whose mothers had pregestational DM was 2.3-fold increased compared with that among individuals with nondiabetic mothers (HR = 2.25; 95% CI: 1.35–3.75, n = 15). MS risk was statistically non-significant among offspring of mothers with gestational DM (HR = 1.03 (95% CI: 0.49–2.16), n = 7) and among offspring of diabetic fathers (HR = 1.40 (95% CI: 0.78–2.54), n = 11). Conclusion: Our nationwide cohort study utilizing high-quality register data in Denmark over several decades corroborates the view that offspring of diabetic mothers may be at an elevated risk of developing MS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present commentary analyses and discusses the Fjölnisdóttir et al. v. Iceland decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) of 18 May 2021. The case concerned an Icelandic couple who had been recognised as the legal parents of a child born by a surrogate mother in California. In contrast to most other surrogacy cases decided by the ECtHR, however, the child had no biological link to either of the intended parents. The ECtHR thus found that a ruling of the Supreme Court of Iceland which had rejected the recognition of the legal parenthood of the intended parents under Icelandic law had not violated Art. 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, despite the fact that joint adoption by the intended parents was not possible in this case. The present commentary argues that this decision exaggerates the importance of the biological link, creating injustices at the expense of the child concerned. In conclusion, the commentary calls for a more consistent and holistic framework to protect the best interests of the child and to prevent abuses of transnational commercial surrogacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how surrogates negotiate the meaning of familial belonging and family identity when they discuss surrogacy with their husband, children, and other relatives. We suggest that surrogacy necessitates reflexive explication of what a family is and how this family is implicated in surrogacy. Our comparative study analyzes ethnographic data on Israeli and US surrogates to illuminate key similarities in surrogates' strategies vis-a-vis their husband and children, pointing to the importance of daily family practices in how people understand family belonging. First, we map out the ways surrogates engage their husbands in order to gain their support and protect their nuclear family unit before entering the process. Next, we look at how surrogates explain surrogacy to their children in efforts to clarify siblingship and the boundaries between the two families, and to make surrogacy into an educational family project. We analyze the metaphors and rituals in surrogates' family-bounding practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gestational surrogacy is spreading across the world and it is increasingly accepted as an available way to make babies: the procreative process, the procurement of gametes, the recruitment of women and the relationships between the various subjects are administered by international agencies. At the same time there are signs of resistance such as transnational mobilizations calling for the universal ban of a practice that is viewed as a form of commodification of women and children. The author introduces the articles included in this monograph issue, which is an original contribution to a sociological understanding of an unprecedented social practice with peculiar characteristics: the presence of a new social actor, the surrogate woman, and the intentional separation of the newborn from the woman he or she identifies as their mother (although they are not genetically related). Because of these characteristics, surrogacy's impact on the social role and subjective experience of motherhood, its imaginary and narrative, as well as on the status of the child, is not comparable to other forms of assisted procreation and family formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to explore some of the fundamental notions that connect the narrative of feminist emancipation to the experience of motherhood. It elucidates any inherent contradictions, appraises their implications for motherhood and assesses their respective salience today for feminist thought. It does so, in particular, by setting motherhood in a wider context where contradictions to feminist theory surface clearly: namely, through dialogues from empirical findings in contemporary motherhood studies and in the context of surrogacy and artificial reproductive technologies (ARTs). Ostensibly, one of the prominent tenets of classic feminism has been its disparaging view of motherhood as being the bastion of women's subordination in a patriarchal society – the corollary being that the emancipation of women could happen only through opposition to or, at best, despite motherhood. The first two sections of the article present classic concepts related to domestic life and motherhood that lambast institutions of male domination, still highly influential in shaping discussions of women's movements around the world. The third section focuses on feminism's controversy over the practice of surrogacy and contends that the epistemological distinction between giving birth and mothering posited by feminism actually legitimizes ARTs' continuing transformation of women's bodies into 'open access flesh'. This is the terrain on which today technology, not patriarchy, is erected. The fourth section surveys a range of vibrant, recent motherhood studies and reclaims the empowering capacity of motherhood at grassroots level, with wider implications. The conclusion raises the issue of 'mothering as empowerment' as a missing piece in the broader landscape of feminist theory, particularly in light of findings that there is a significant concurrence of values and practices characterizing how women with children self-define themselves, as both moral and social agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the navigation of intensive mothering ideology – the dominant cultural mothering schema in the US which places pressure on mothers to exclusively devote time and energy to their children, casting any other activity as problematic – within the lived experience of a unique cohort of mothers: women paid to gestate and birth babies for others. Based on in-depth interviews with US commercial surrogates, this study adds new depth to the body of research on intensive mothering by extending the arena of examination beyond work/family balance negotiations, where much of the literature is located. US surrogates understand surrogacy, which is rigorous labor, frequently takes time away from their families, and requires support from family members, not as a form of employment but as a 'selfish pursuit,' one they primarily engage in out of their own interests and desires. This study finds that the positive moral framework of surrogate labor as 'altruistic self-sacrifice' common within the US surrogacy industry and community, the fact that surrogacy is a relatively short-term 'gig,' and the healthy monetary compensation surrogates receive that serves as a tangible 'thank you gift' to families, help to buffer surrogates from full intensive mothering accountability. The experiences of US surrogates navigating mothering pressures while participating in surrogacy offer a window into how other contemporary US mothers might resist intensive mothering norms while engaging in non-familial and non-employment activities in their lives, activities such as hobbies or personal time away from family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The asymmetrical commercial surrogacy industry in India has been subject to media scrutiny and scholarly debate focusing on biomedical, legal, ethical and feminist concerns. Since 2016, this discourse has taken a contested turn, as the new Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill bans commercial surrogacy and allows only altruistic surrogacy for heteronormative, married, clinically-infertile Indian couples/women. This Bill has been passed by Parliament's lower house, but is still being debated in the upper house. One recurrent trope underpinning the surrogacy rhetoric is the Hindu figuration of the sacrificing mother, as iconified in the mythical Yashoda. Altruistic surrogacy is usually framed as an ethical extension of selfless motherhood; and commercial surrogacy stakeholders also use the same trope to validate surrogacy. This article critiques how Hindu constructs of motherhood impact the rhetoric and politics of surrogacy in India. Using a three-part analysis, the author discusses a Hindu surrogacy myth, investigates government and media texts on the new Bill, and explores select testimonials of surrogates (sourced through secondary research). The research question in the article is: how are the rights of surrogates being addressed (or diminished) through the use of Hindu motherhood tropes and the framing of surrogacy as gift-giving or unpaid service rather than transaction? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author aims to highlight some similarities and differences between the contemporary imagery of motherhood and that of ecospirituality. Apart from apparent differences, both these imageries are based on a peculiar alliance with nature. Demonstrating why these phenomena have to be considered postmodern forms of sacralization is the goal of this article. For this purpose, the author first briefly reconstructs some socio-historical stages of the imagery of the body and how this has changed from Christian to contemporary societies. The second section analyses the concept of health, focusing on the changes that affect the idea of death. The third section identifies the main features of gestational surrogacy as a characteristic phenomenon of late modern society. In the fourth section, the author shows the postmodern nature of gestational surrogacy. The fifth section compares the imagery of gestational surrogacy to that of ecospirituality, detecting some differences and similarities. In the conclusion, through an approach close to the sociology of religion, the author suggests that both these phenomena respond to the same demand for meaning and they are the product of a radical change in the relationship between human being, nature and the sacred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article elaborates the cultural and political structures that inform the belief among Japanese that surrogacy is legitimate. It argues that this belief reflects a transition from previously negative attitudes toward surrogacy practices developed in the United States. The article first elaborates the history of the Japanese recognition of surrogacy by introducing early forms of East Asian surrogacy that lasted until the first half of the 20th century. Second, it explores the recent shift in Japanese discussions about surrogacy through an analysis of cultural representations on the topic, mainly referring to a dataset of magazine articles published from 1981 to the present. The author then calls upon Giorgio Agamben's theoretical framework to discuss the juridico-political perspective of 'bare life' as it relates to surrogacy, and argues that considering surrogate mothers and children conceived through surrogacy as bare life makes surrogate practice seem reasonable in modern Japanese society. To conclude, the article stresses the importance of incorporating women's reproductive functions into law to prevent women and their conceived children from becoming bare life, and being exposed to violence, in the form of a surrogacy contract. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the statistical literature, the class of survival analysis models known as cure models has received much attention in recent years. Cure models seem not, however, to be part of the statistical toolbox of perinatal epidemiologists. In this paper, we demonstrate that in perinatal epidemiological studies where one investigates the relation between a gestational exposure and a condition that can only be ascertained after several years, cure models may provide the correct statistical framework. The reason for this is that the hypotheses being tested often concern an unobservable outcome that, in view of the hypothesis, should be thought of as occurring at birth, even though it is only detectable much later in life. The outcome of interest can therefore be viewed as a censored binary variable. We illustrate our argument with a simple cure model analysis of the possible relation between gestational exposure to paracetamol and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, using data from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study conducted by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, and information about the attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder diagnoses obtained from the Norwegian Patient Registry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how military spouses negotiate the decision to become a surrogate with their service member husband and how the two navigate surrogacy together. It is speculated that military spouses are ideal candidates for surrogacy due to their particular status as a military spouse; however, military spouses face structural constraints in their everyday lives which in turn would prove challenging to their desire to become a surrogate. Based on in-depth interviews with 33 military spouses who had been surrogates, this article examines how military spouses discuss, negotiate, and experience surrogacy with their spouses all the while navigating the structural demands of the military and the contractual demands of surrogacy. Findings highlight egalitarian decision making between the spouses, and a mostly collaborative approach to the surrogacy process. Ultimately, this work illuminates how surrogacy is experienced by the women who participate in the practice and provides insight as to how military marriages function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arguments for veganism don't make many vegans, or even many who think they ought to be vegans, at least when they are written by philosophers. Those written by others - such as Jonathan Safran Foer - seem to do a bit better. Why? To answer this question, I sketch a theory of ordinary moral argumentation that highlights the importance of meaning-based considerations when arguing that people ought to act in ways that deviate from normal expectations for behaviour. In particular, I outline an eclectic theory, where we draw on a variety of moral frameworks and don't assume that morality is generally overriding. I suggest that meaning-based considerations help us sort through the array of reasons available to us, as well as explain why, in a particular case, what we ought to do morally is what we ought to do all things considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present study results regarding soldiers' willingness to conduct posthumous reproduction. Two hundred twelve Israeli soldiers filled in a questionnaire designed to examine their willingness to cryopreserve sperm and evaluate in which familial circumstances they would consent to posthumous reproduction. They ranked the desirability of 46 attributes of a potential mother and a life partner. Findings indicate a relatively high predisposition in favor of posthumous-assisted reproduction; the wishes of soldiers' parents had much more influence on soldiers' willingness to pursue this technology than those of a partner. Soldiers preferred "feminine" jobs for a potential mother that would allow her to dedicate herself to child-rearing. The desired traits of such a mother were rated similarly to partner preferences; however, significant differences were found in attributes that are most related to the potential mother's devotion to maternity. Interpretations of these findings are contextualized in relation to ethical and bereavement considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, it is argued that it is problematic to construe the debate around the process labelled ‘surrogacy’ as a form for infertility treatment. Firstly, this way of defining what happens opens up a new form of medical desire where a growing number of people wish to have children through ‘surrogacy’. This medicalizes childlessness and creates pressure within health services to respond to the desires of an ever-growing group of patients. Secondly, this labels the woman who carries the child as a ‘surrogate’ and defines her as a core element in a ‘treatment method’. This way of phrasing and defining what happens puts the woman carrying the child in an unacceptable moral position within the health system. Thirdly, by viewing the woman carrying the child as a ‘substitute’ for a mother or as a ‘temporary custodian’ ignores the unique relationship between the foetus and the pregnant woman. To keep the ethical issues in focus in the ‘surrogacy’ process, it is necessary for health professionals to always accept the woman who goes through gestation and birth as the mother of the child. This unconditional acceptance shifts the core of the process away from the idea of ‘treatment’ and towards ‘adoption’ as the defining element in the process. Consequently, it will be easier to accept ‘surrogacy’ as a complicated and wide-ranging process as well as to secure the basic human rights of the pregnant woman and the welfare of the child being born. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined surrogate women’s perceptions on the Indian ban on international surrogacy. In-depth interviews were conducted with 25 surrogate women at a fertility clinic in Gujarat, India. Three themes emerged: (1) perceptions of the ban; (2) impact of the ban on surrogates, international couples, and fertility clinics; and (3) long-term economic results of surrogacy. Women stated that international surrogacy should not be banned, because it provides substantial economic benefits. They also noted that the ban affects childless couples and clinics by cutting off a source of income. This research provides recommendations for social work action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on eight interviews with Danish gay male couples and one gay man, who had or were planning to become fathers through transnational commercial surrogacy, I examine the ways the men form family subjectivities between traditional kinship patterns and fundamentally new forms of kinship and family. Arguing that class, mobility, and privilege should also be understood as relational and negotiated positions, I show that gay men engaged in surrogacy must be understood as more flexible and differentiated. Second, I show how kinship as synonymous with biogenetic relatedness is supplemented by notions of kinship as devotion, individual will and determination, and reproductive desire in order to strengthen the men’s affinity to their children. Last, I examine how the men negotiate and work within the given structures of heteronormativity and Whiteness and rework notions of parenthood while at the same time reaffirming old hierarchizations of racialized and sexualized forms of procreation and families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Baby factories and baby harvesting are relatively new terms that involve breeding, trafficking, and abuse of infants and their biological mothers. Since it was first described in a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization report in Nigeria in 2006, several more baby factories have been discovered over the years. Infertile women are noted to be major patrons of these baby factories due to the stigmatization of childless couples in Southern Nigeria and issues around cultural acceptability of surrogacy and adoption. These practices have contributed to the growth in the industry which results in physical, psychological, and sexual violence to the victims. Tackling baby factories will involve a multifaceted approach that includes advocacy and enacting of legislation barring baby factories and infant trafficking and harsh consequences for their patrons. Also, programs to educate young girls on preventing unwanted pregnancies are needed. Methods of improving awareness and acceptability of adoption and surrogacy and reducing the administrative and legal bottlenecks associated with these options for infertile couples should be explored to diminish the importance of baby factories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the decades, there have been numerous trends in the formation of family for those experiencing infertility. Adoption – initially domestic but now mostly international – has long been a prevailing method, with a dual outcome of also finding homes for parentless children. Those would-be parents with a stronger desire for genetic relatedness have turned to assisted reproductive technologies for the creation of their families. In the 21st century, capitalising on globalisation and advances in medical sciences and communication, global commercial surrogacy (GCS) is emerging as a dominant method of family formation. In seeking to publish this article in Adoption & Fostering, our primary objective was to provide its readership with an introductory look at GCS, thereby expanding an awareness of surrogacy to an audience whose work has traditionally been concerned with the care and protection of children through foster care and adoption. A secondary aim was to see where the long-standing field of adoption could potentially inform the burgeoning field of global commercial surrogacy. To achieve these objectives, we use international adoption and the adoption triangle as a framework, as we look at the similarities and differences between: (1) the adoptive and commissioning parents; (2) the birth mother and the surrogate; and (3) the adopted children and the children born of global surrogacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neoliberalism as an economic ideology of governance through markets has functioned to break down the gendered dichotomies of public and private, market and home, and production and reproduction and in so doing has created new forms of subjectivity, families, and relationships between women. A critical analysis of the globalization and commodification of reproduction in the form of transnational surrogate motherhood contracts between Western and Southern women reveals the different ways in which intending parents and surrogate mothers are incorporated into gendered and racial circuits of global specialization and exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses different court cases about adoption and fostering in England and Wales in Great Britain. Topics covered include the case of five children who were placed because of chaotic parenting and neglect by their abusive parents, the case of a baby who was removed from her parent's care and placed under foster care with her aunt and uncle, and the case of two children who were removed from their mother's care because of the mother's mental health problems.

In India where a large number of Indian women, primarily from poor and disadvantaged economic sections, are willing to gestate a pregnancy for an infertile couple in exchange for compensation—the meaning of pregnancy is completely different. Navigating circumstances and relationships are not only strange for Indian surrogates but also for foreign as well as Indian couples who enter into the transnational commercial gestational surrogacy arrangement. Here the notion of risk is seen in the ‘disembodied relationships’ of couples and surrogates trying to nurture an alien pregnancy—alien for the surrogate due to her status as a non-claimant, and alien to the couple because it is housed in the body of another. Experiences culled from interviews with couples, surrogates and their relatives point towards how ‘risk’ is felt and played out in the care and nurturance of the pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A longitudinal perspective on motherhood that spans the experience of gestation, birthing, the care of young children, and the mother’s relation to her grown children makes way for a conception of the mother as essentially plural. It shall be argued in this paper that maternity is necessarily tied to surrogacy, that it is divided into a multiplicity of tasks inevitably parceled out to multiple agents. In this essay, the analysis of maternal surrogacy is focused on the phenomenon of mothering from a distance, a maternal practice engendered by the feminization and globalization of labor markets. By both affirming the value of maternal surrogates and questioning the limits of surrogacy, this analysis of motherhood challenges both the economic exploitation that engenders and sustains distant mothering and the gendered division of care labor that supports the global economy of care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on reproductive assembly line in Bangalore, India. It states that India is rising in terms of transnational surrogacy with profits projected to reach $6 billion. Also mentioned are aspects that leads some Indian women to engage in surrogacy, their views about surrogacy, and the case of surrogate mother and garment worker Indirani who had delivered twins for a Tamil couple in the U.S.

The article discusses court cases related to adoption and fostering in England and Wales. It relates the opinion of the court on the request of a mother to withhold the fact of the existence of a child she placed for adoption from the father. It discusses the decision of the court on the application by a mother to set aside the adoption order for the child who was removed from her care at the age of 18 months as a result of her drug abuse. A judge refused to lift the confidentiality of adoption records for information about a deceased adopted person.

This article explores the challenges medical travel poses for the development and implementation of health regulation in Asia. Cross-border reproductive travel in Asia is used to exemplify some of the ethical, legal and regulatory complexities such travel poses. A number of countries in the region lack regulatory frameworks regarding controversial procedures such as preimplantation genetic diagnosis for sex selection, commercial donor and surrogacy procedures to ensure protections for donors and surrogates or children born of such procedures. The particular challenge of reproductive travel arises when people travel for services because they wish to undertake a treatment requiring the embodied services or biological materials of other people in ways that are not legal or considered unethical in their home country. The final part of the article examines prospects for a global response towards the regulation of such trade. Such a response will require cooperation across sectors, international government organizations, state, and non-state actors to deal with the transnational interdependence it involves and to protect the rights of vulnerable groups. The challenge is to determine the mechanisms for regulating the trade, as well as the basis upon which global regulation is undertaken. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on the growing industry of reproductive travel that involves payment for resources of female fertility like surrogacy and ova services. It says that the reproductive travel industry has been criticized because of its exploitative nature and the potential harm that it brings to the women providers. According to the author, paying for female reproductive resources is a problematic practice because the process of pregnancy and ova retrieval are activities that are physically invasive. The other ethical challenges posed by the reproductive travel industry and the concern for the potential injustices that the industry can bring to women in developing countries are also discussed.

A specimen of accessory phallic urethra duplication (triplication) in a 32.5-week gestation female was studied histologically. The specimen demonstrated an anterior ''phallic urethra'' ending inside a penoclitoral organ in a megalourethra-like dilatation with a narrow epispadiac meatus and ''anterior urethrocutaneous fistula'' and a posterior canal opening with the anal canal. With histology suggestive of a split persistent urogenital sinus, correlation to normal development strongly suggests an error in the formation of the cloacal membrane and developing superficial cloaca at 26 to 29 days' ovulation age (2 to 4 mm), causing an isolated interruption of the membrane by mesenchyme, which by participating in the growth of the early cloaca may extend as far as the vaginal orifice later. Differences in number, position, and size of such mesenchymal interruptions can explain other duplications and triplications and offer a single alternative for the many current theories of pathogenesis, none of which are compatible with new insights in normal development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study of surrogate mothers in Gujarat, India, I introduce the concept of 'sexualised care work' to describe a new type of care work--commercial surrogacy--that is similar to existing forms of care work but is stigmatised in the public imagination, among other reasons, because of its parallels with sex work. I use the oral histories of the surrogates to examine the accounts they give, justifying their work and resisting stigma. I argue that while the narratives can be seen as a form of resistance, they reinforce the primary identity of these women as dependent mothers rather than independent workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is an ethnographic study of girls' orphanages in Egypt. It examines cultural notions of unwanted children and explores the attitudes, perceptions and managerial practices of six orphanages in and around Cairo. The institutions are characterized by various styles of surrogate mothering educational and administrative practices, occupational training and the marital aspirations and attitudes of their occupants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

: Objective:This study determined whether maternal glucose tolerance has a progressive effect on the length of gestation in singleton pregnancies and whether there is an increasing tendency towards spontaneous preterm birth with increasing glucose intolerance.: Methods:A total of 2168 consecutive Chinese women with singleton pregnancies who underwent the 75-g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) over a 24-month period were categorized by their OGTT 2-hour value (mmol/L) into the following six groups: 5.9 or less, 6.0–6.9, 7.0–7.9, 8.0–8.9, 9.0–10.9, and 11.0 or greater mmol/L. Women with a 2-hour glucose value of 8.0 or more mmol/L were considered to have gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and received diet treatment. Women who eventually required insulin were excluded from the final analysis. The mean gestational age, birth weight, incidence of preterm birth, large for gestational age (LGA, birth weight > 90th percentile), and macrosomic (birth weight ≥ 4.0 kg) infants were compared among the six groups.: Results:The incidence of preterm birth correlated significantly with increasing glucose intolerance. On further analysis, incidence of spontaneous birth before 37 weeks in the lowest to the highest 2-hour value groups was as follows: 5.5%, 2.6%, 3.7%, 4.9%, 8.5%, and 10.3% (P = .015) and that before 32 weeks went from 0.4%, 0.3%, 0.8%, 0.4%, 2.2%, to 3.4% (P = .018), respectively. There was no significant difference in the incidence of LGA or macrosomic infants. Regression analysis confirmed that the OGTT 2-hour glucose value was an independent determinant of gestational length.: Conclusion:Gestational glucose intolerance affects gestation length and incidence of preterm birth, which should be considered a confounding factor in the analysis of the neonatal outcome of GDM pregnancies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Examines the experiences of parents involved in surrogate parenting in California. Mode of decision-making; Method of fertilization; Involvement in surrogacy programs.

Explores the personality traits of women acting as surrogate mothers in a surrogacy program in California. Examination on the satisfaction on service providers; Qualifications of participants; Goal of surrogates in participating.