On Reproductive Work in Spain: Transnational Adoption, Egg Donation, Surrogacy

ABSTRACT

Spain’s plummeting fertility since the late twentieth century may seem to reflect a waning desire for children. Nevertheless, reproductive disappointments resulting from gender inequalities cause many Spanish women to postpone motherhood and experience age-related fertility problems. For them, creating a family often becomes possible only through the reproductive labor of other women. Our analysis of transnational adoption, egg donation, and surrogacy in Spain shows how anonymity and altruism play out in these three strategies, with implications for the valuation of women’s reproductive work and relationships among reproductive providers, intermediaries, recipients, and the resulting children.

SPANISH ABSTRACT

El descenso de la natalidad en España en el siglo XX pareciera reflejar una declinación en el deseo de tener hijos. Sin embargo, es una consecuencia de inequidades de género por las que muchas mujeres españolas postponen la maternidad hasta que experimentan problemas de infertilidad y deben recurrir al trabajo reproductivo de otras mujeres. Nuestro análisis de la adopción transnacional, la donación de óvulos y la gestación subrogada muestra cómo el anonimato y el altruismo invisibiliza el trabajo reproductivo de esas mujeres e incide en las relaciones entre proveedoras reproductivas, intermediarios, receptoras y niños-as resultantes de esos procesos reproductivos.

KEYWORDS:

• Spain
• altruism
• egg donation
• reproductive work
• surrogacy
• transnational adoption

PALABRAS CLAVE:

• España
• altruismo
• ovodonación
• trabajo reproductivo
• gestación subrogada
• adopción transnacional

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the AFIN Research Group members for provided feedback on some versions of this article at various stages. Susan Frekko provided feedback on some versions of the article, translated parts of it from Spanish, and edited the English. The authors thank all study participants for their availability and generosity.

Funding

This research was funded by MINECO/FEDER, UE through the R+D Project CSO2015-64551-C3-1-R “From birth control to demographic anxiety: disclosure, secrecy and anonymity in the reproductive technologies of XXI century.”

Notes

1. See Nahman (2008), Downie and Baylis (2013), Beeson, Darnovsky, and Lippman (2015), and Deomampo (2016) on the issue of whether to call these women “donors,” “sellers,” or “providers.”

2. They are, for example, psychologists, social workers, childcare providers, translators, facilitators, managers, agencies, attorneys, judges, embassies, consulates, accredited entities and other adoption service providers, in both sending and receiving countries.

3. This baggage is envisioned as being full of negative past experiences thought to hinder the child’s attachment and development (Newton Verrier 2009[1993]).

4. For comparison, the Spanish minimum monthly wage is around US $700.

5. One in four of egg donors in Catalonia was born in another country (Servei d’estudis: FIVCAT.net, 2016).

6. The nature of the altruism differs across the three practices; it is directed toward children in adoption and toward would-be parents in gamete donation and surrogacy. This issue is worthy of further investigation.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by MINECO/FEDER, UE through the R+D Project CSO2015-64551-C3-1-R From birth control to demographic anxiety: disclosure, secrecy and anonymity in the reproductive technologies of XXI century.

Notes on contributors

Diana Marre

Diana Marre is associate professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and co-editor of Adopción y Acogimiento: Presente y Perspectivas (2004), International Adoption: Global Inequalities and the Circulation of Children (2009), and Maternidades, procreación y crianza en transformación (2013). She is the director of AFIN Research Group and Centre, and co-editor of the AFIN Magazine.

Beatriz San Román

Beatriz San Román is lecturer at the Department of Social Psychology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She is a member of AFIN Research Group and a senior researcher in the R+D research project “On parental desires and filial rights: interdisciplinary perspectives on ‘the origins’ in assisted reproduction with gamete donation, surrogacy and adoption.” Her research interests gravitate around issues of choice, justice, and power relations in relation to third-party assisted reproduction technologies.

Diana Guerra

Diana Guerra is working as clinical psychologist since 1981. She has been involved in several subjects as a psychologist: drug addictions, personality disorders, womens mental health, and human reproduction. She also wrote a book, How to cope with Infertility, in 1998. She is the head of the Psychological Unit at Instituto Valenciano de Infertilidad.