VIRTUAL REPRESENTATIONS OF SURROGACY IN CLINICS AND PRIVATE AGENCIES IN MEXICO

Abstract

Surrogacy refers to the agreement by which a woman gestate and give birth to a baby for a family or a person. A qualitative research was conducted with the objective of analyzing the discourse of the websites of agencies and private clinics operating in Mexico in relation to surrogacy processes. A digital ethnographic design was used to analyze the websites of 11 private clinics and agencies that provide surrogacy services. A textual content analysis of each of the websites was carried out through a process of emergent categorization based on the axial categories: subjects, companies, processes/ services and costs. The analytical categories were constructed from the proposals of different studies on the dimensions of surrogacy (philosophical, legal, personal, medical, historical and social). Through the present research it has been proven that surrogacy clinics and agencies operating in the Mexican context socialize a representation of surrogacy based on: (1) the differentiation of the role of women in the different processes of participation in the reproductive process, (2) the mercantilist vision of motherhood, (3) the altruistic perspective of these practices, (4) the emotional vision of maternity/paternity and (4) the right to form a family. Likewise, it has been found that the participation of private surrogacy agencies and clinics in Mexico is a reality. These agencies and clinics use different discourses to promote this service and favor the social representation of Mexico as a destination for reproductive tourism. These facts, together with the conditions of justice and inequality in Mexico, are factors that favor the commercialization of the body and the generation of surrogacy companies and intermediaries. These are presented as cross-border reproductive care entities in the global chain of reproductive labor.