Commercial Surrogacy and the Status of Women: A Care Ethical Discussion

Abstract

The ethics of care that has been found in rooted in feminist thought has offered a distinct moral framework that has challenged the traditional ethical theories by giving importance to empathy, relationality, and context over universal principles. This perspective has been presented by theorists like Carol Gilligan and Nel Noddings, who have given emphasis to virtues that has been traditionally found to be associated with women, such as nurturing and compassion and which have been undervalued in patriarchal societies. The commodification of surrogacy has played a significant ethical dilemma through its reduction of motherhood to a transactional service, divorcing it from its emotional and relational dimensions. Feminist critiques, from Simone De Beauvoir to Adrienne Rich have given emphasised to the question that how such practices have focused on patriarchal ideologies by exploiting women's bodies and undermining their agency in the reproductive process. From a care ethics standpoint, the commercial practice of surrogacy has found to be raised a fundamental question about the nature of care, the autonomy of women, and the ethical implications of treating human relationships as economic transactions.