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Surrogate motherhood is expanding all over the world. Debates rage over how public policy should consider the signing away of the parental rights of birth mothers in favor of a `commissioning` couple or an individual.
In this book, Daniela Danna describes the situation in English-speaking countries and worldwide, from California to Greece, presenting the legal alternatives regulating (or not) these peculiar exchanges.
Should surrogacy remain a private agreement? Should it be treated as an enforceable contract? Are surrogate mothers workers? What happens inside the countries that have chosen different ways of handling this new and controversial matter? And, the most important question of all: How can we live in this era of new techno-medical possibilities and try to stay human? Can we resist commodification in the field of human relations concerning procreation?
Contract Children discusses the different ways available to obtain a child through surrogate motherhood. It is fundamental reading for anyone wanting to be involved in the surrogacy process. It gives prospective surrogate mothers and infertile couples the background information necessary for their own informed decision. It is also an essential instrument for policy makers and activists in the field of women s rights, social justice, and children s rights.
The question of how to publicly deal with surrogate motherhood touches upon our social vision of motherhood, ultimately marking the position of women in contemporary society.

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"Reading this book is like climbing to the top of a mountain and surveying the landscape beneath. It clearly outlines the difficult and interconnected debates surrounding surrogacy."?Stefania Doglioli, President of the Centro Studi sul Pensiero Femminile and of the Associazione XXD

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Daniela Danna works as a sociologist at the University of Milan. From 2001, in this and other Universities, she has taught on the subjects of economic sociology, world-systems analysis, methodology of the social science, social policy, and history of sociology. She is the author of a number of books and articles on violence against women, prostitution policy, lesbian and gay issues, population and procreation. She is also the author of popularizing pamphlets, such as Gender explained to a paramecium, available on her website www.danieladanna.it. She is a founding editor of XXD - Rivista di varia donnità, an Italian feminist web magazine.

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