International surrogacy during the COVID-19 pandemic: Who is a victim?

VALC, Jakub and Hana KONEČNÁ. International surrogacy during the COVID-19 pandemic: Who is a victim? In 15th ESA (European Sociological Association) Conference/Barcelona. 2021.

Basic information

• Original name: International surrogacy during the COVID-19 pandemic: Who is a victim?
• Name in Czech: Mezinárodní surrogace v době pandemie Covid-19: Kdo je obětí?
• Name (in English): International surrogacy during the COVID-19 pandemic: Who is a victim?
• Authors: VALC, Jakub and Hana KONEČNÁ.
• Edition: 15th ESA (European Sociological Association) Conference/Barcelona, 2021.

Other information

• Type of outcome: Presentations at conferences
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• Keywords (in Czech): mezinárodní surrogace, pandemie, oběť, média
• Keywords in English: international surrogacy; pandemic; victim; media

Abstract

Introduction: International surrogacy is an increasingly common way to have a child. As this is a largely uncontrolled business or market, it is not possible to determine the number of procedures per year, but we can talk even about tens of thousands. The procedure is often associated with huge problems, the most serious of them is the ex post registration of the child in the applicant's home country. The unexpected Covid-19 pandemic brought a new problem based on sudden travel restrictions prevented applicants from personal contact with a pregnant surrogate mother, from participating in birth of a child and from taking the child into their own care, including subsequent return to the applicants' home country. Pictures of babies "imprisoned" in the home countries of surrogate mothers have appeared in the world media. The presentation of the situation was very interesting. Our paper seeks answers to the questions of who is described as a victim in this situation and the reasons why and who calls her that. Methods: Discursive analysis of available media texts in Czech, English and German, published in 2020. Results: We identified the following main groups of victims, in our analysis, so far: applicants, child, surrogate mother. The description of the victim is usually very emotional and who is identified as the victim is very much related to the focus of the commentator.