| dc.description.abstract | Commercial surrogacy is a phenomenon that has been widely debated for a long time. Arguments surrounding the merits of this practice have notwithstanding focused on domestic cases of surrogacy, where the laws and courts of a particular legal system could be applied and analyzed with regard to specific cases.
Majority of the studies on commercial surrogacy chiefly oversees several critical issues when the transaction gets into an international level. Exploitation happens to be more serious when most of the commercial surrogacy transactions are carried out between the wealthy commissioning parents who come from developed countries and the poor surrogates who live in poverty in developing countries like Thailand and India. Other problems like the problem of justice, human rights, legal and cultural difference are sought for a careful discussion.
Since different types of surrogacy implicate a differing set of questions and consequences, this thesis focuses on the type of surrogacy that places women and children at the heart of a competitive market--international, commercial, gestational surrogacy wherein foreign women bear non-genetic children for a fee. I aim to explore the ethical controversies of this type of transnational commercial surrogacy. Next, I present a current transnational commercial surrogacy case of Baby Gammy, which posts controversies between Australian couples and Thai surrogate. For the ethical analysis, Beauchamp and Childress’s four-principled theory – beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice and autonomy is applied in the hope to offer a more rich and nuanced look on transnational commercial surrogacy. Finally, a Confucian approach is proposed for a foundation towards acceptable surrogacy and its bioethical ramification is noted.
After the examination of the transnational commercial surrogacy application and cases, it appears that the practice is beneficial both to the woman who acts as a surrogate and the infertile commissioning couples who hires her. Nonetheless, to minimize harms and exploitation, this thesis proposed for a strict implementation of surrogacy arrangement and act. There is an urgent need to reconsider about how the agencies involved are well protected. This can be done through revising fine and punishment, commissioning parents’ background check, and establishing a professional surrogacy agency and committee to monitor and safeguard the whole surrogacy process.
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