Corinna Sabrina Guerzoni’s scientific contributions

Recensione di Simonetta Grilli, Antropologia delle famiglie contemporanee, Roma, Carocci, 2019, pp. 315.

This paper is a partial transcription of a long conversation between the sociologist Zsuzsa Berend (University of California, Los Angeles) and the anthropologist Corinna Sabrina Guerzoni (Western Fertility Institute, Los Angeles) on US surrogacy. It is the outcome of an interview occurred on 6th October 2017 in Los Angeles, transcribed and revised by both the authors. The text analyzes some fundamental concepts that Berend explored in her book The Online World of Surrogacy (2016) and offers some food for thought to read the US commercial surrogacy with other lenses. Berend’s study offers an in-depth analysis of compensated surrogacy in the US and unique perspective for a better understanding of the experiences and points of view of the women directly involved in this assisted reproductive practice.

Surrogacy is prohibited, or not recognized by law, in almost all Western European countries (Smietana, 2016). It is mantled by multiple and articulated social disconfirmation that stresses how it is surrounded by ethical issues at different levels: the commodification of bodily substances, the exploitation of women�s reproductive capabilities and so on (Gross, 2012). It has been argued that surrogacy may exploit women from a more economically disadvantaged background (Blyth, 1994) and that the women may enter into a surrogacy arrangement because of financial hardship without being fully aware of the potential risks (Brazier et.al., 1998). If the common sense generally describes the �third parties� selection like a purchase of material goods, how do the actors involved in this process describe their experiences? Based on the research conveyed in a fertility clinic of Southern California, I will focus my attention on the reproductive choices of Italian gay couples that have used surrogacy to become fathers. If in the study of artificial reproductive technologies (ARTs) the arrangements between parties are generally analyzed only considering one part�s point of view, the ambition of this article is to show the complexity of the practice putting together all the parties involved in the reproductive collaborations: intended fathers, egg donors, surrogates and the fertility industry. The aim is to show how the choice is co-constructed throughout the course of the matching phase, by all the actors involved and by other influences that I will show below.