Maternal relations, feminism and surrogate motherhood in the Italian context

Abstract

This article examines the surrogacy debate that has developed within contemporary feminist and LGBT movements in Italy, following the approval of the law on civil unions at the beginning of 2016. This debate has been marked by a deep fracture between those who see in surrogate motherhood a chance to imagine new forms of social bonds and those who consider that women’s wombs and newborn children can never be the object of an economic ‘exchange’. I will first analyse the most controversial positions held by some feminists who have participated in the debate, which revolve around the centrality of the maternal figure. Then I will outline a brief history of the social construction of pregnancy, linking it to changes in the marketplace and the birth of biopolitics. Finally, with the help of Angela Putino’s philosophical thought I will advance a potentially different feminist approach to the issue of surrogate motherhood.