Let’s hold one another hospitably, explode notion of hereditary parentage, and multiply real, loving solidarities. Meadhbh Murray is a feminist sociologist interested in the politics of knowledge, organisations and audit processes, and higher education. But, in a communal vision, another value we may want is equity in the kinds of people doing gestational labor. Her translations include Communism for Kids by Bini Adamczak (MIT, 2016, with Jacob Blumenfeld), A Brief History of Feminism by Antje Schrupp (MIT, 2017) and Unterscheiden und Herrschen by Paula-Irene Villa and Sabine Hark (Verso, 2020).

The reader does not witness the procedure; Ramos is almost too devoted to her characters to linger on their pain, and the novel skips over any childbirth scenes. Facebook sets this cookie to show relevant advertisements to users by tracking user behaviour across the web, on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin. Lewis does a difficult job well, challenging some of the most emotive beliefs about parenthood and reproductive biology in a clear and accessibly written way. Radical that she is, Sophie Lewis gets right to the root of the matter--and, radical that she is, finds its roots to be intersecting and entangled, "lovely, replicative, baroque", as one of her own gestators, Donna Haraway, might put it. However, surrogacy being work is a means to “maximally eradicate work” (125), not an end in itself: we need to see work where it is (not necessarily increase or enjoy it) before we can get to abolishing capital.What if we did not fetishise biological connection to children and did reproductive labour more communally? Lewis could evade this concern by assuming that all future communes worth discussing will be places with such intimate ties simpliciter.

Lewis might argue that the goal is not to eliminate these kinds of families at all, but rather to proliferate caring relations. In June, when the New York State Assembly considered a bill that would legalize paid surrogacy, Gloria Steinem vigorously opposed it. The focus is on gendered and raced global class relations and considerations of different models of birthing work, such as surrogacy co-operatives which some surrogates are advocating. Lewis blames capitalism, a system in which, she argues, everyone needs a home team—people to root for, and to fall back on when things go south. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights.An instructive and moving book about the work of babymaking and the best possible future for birthing and raising children. It does not advocate for forcing people into surrogacy and to describe its vision as akin to the dystopianism of the Handmaid's Tale is deeply ironic given Lewis' biting critique of Atwood's novel. The title – Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family – sounds like a right-wing parody of feminism and accordingly has been misinterpreted and provoked enraged YouTube videos and comments from people who have not read the book. She has worked on deradicalisation and relational autonomy, global bioethics including commercial surrogacy, and genetic selection for non-disease traits. Footnote 1 For the reproductive commune, such intimate ties to multiple particular persons may exist, but they may not, and it is quite a jump to have faith it will simply work out for the children.