A Comparative Analysis of France and the UK’s Policies towards Surrogacy through a Marxist and Gender Approach

Abstract: This research paper aims to analyze France and the UK’s policies on surrogacy from a marxist and gender perspective. It will also look at the EU’s normative role as surrogacy is a practice that can be perceived as contradictory to the EU’s values as there are a number of issues that arise due to cross-border surrogacy arrangements. There are four main issues when it comes to surrogacy practices: the exploitation of women, the commodification of women, the commodification of children, and an indirect issue which is the definition of legal parentage which determines the citizenship of the child which is essential when it comes to cross-border surrogacy arrangements. This paper concludes that the lack of common regulation is problematic. As there is no consensus, cross-border surrogacy arrangements are on the rise which exacerbates the exploitation of surrogate women from developing countries. This, in turn, deepens the divide between developed and developing countries. Lastly the lack of consensus on legal parentage leads to citizenship issues which put individuals at the risk of being stateless.