Intrafamilial Surrogacy: Motivations, Imaginary and Current Reality

Abstract

In some countries it happens that a person or a couple making use of medically assisted reproductive technology prefers (if possible) to use as gamete donor or a surrogate woman a person from within their own family, whether this person offers their services spontaneously or is asked to help: sisters who donate eggs to their sisters, brothers who donate sperm to their brothers, mothers who carry their future grandchildren in their own womb or vice versa. The aim of this article is to investigate the issue of intrafamilial donation, with particular focus on intrafamilial surrogacy. Our analysis will be based on the results of a survey conducted on the wider topic of the social imaginary associated with medically assisted procration.