Are International Surrogates Exploited with Stephen Wilkinson

Taboo Trades

In today’s episode, UVA Law 3Ls, Makenna Cherry and Meghana Puchalapalli join me to continue our discussion with Lancaster University professor Stephen Wilkinson. Wilkinson is a Professor of Bioethics, Associate Dean for Research for the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and Chair of the University Research Ethics Committee.

Much of his work is about reproductive ethics and the regulation of reproductive technologies, especially the ethics of selective reproduction. A book on this topic (Choosing Tomorrow’s Children, Oxford University Press) was published in 2010. Since then, particular interests have included ethical issues raised by uterus transplantation, non-invasive pre-natal testing, mitochondrial replacement, new sources of eggs and sperm, genome editing, surrogacy, and public funding for infertility treatment.

Another abiding interest is the commercial exploitation of the human body, which was the subject of his first book, Bodies for Sale (Routledge, 2003), which we discuss in this episode, together with his 2016 article, Exploitation in international paid surrogacy arrangements, which appeared in the Journal of Applied Philosophy.

Professor Stephen Wilkinson Bio, Lancaster University: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/ppr/people/stephen-wilkinson

Exploitation in international paid surrogacy arrangements
Wilkinson, S. 05/2016 In: Journal of Applied Philosophy. 33, 2, p. 125-145

Bodies for sale: ethics and exploitation in the human body trade
Wilkinson, S. 2003 New York : Routledge. 248 p. ISBN: 9780415266253 .