About the project:

The technological development of the reproductive field raises a lot of new possibilities, however, at the same time, it also produces diverse moral, social and legal dilemmas. Global medical reproductive technologies often challenge traditional schemes, such as family, heritage and biological belonging. The issue of surrogacy and donation of biological materials is under particular interest. Surrogacy, as an assistive reproductive method has grasped the interest of the scientific community from the end of the twentieth century (Markens 2007, Pande 2007, Ragoné 1996, Teman 2010). In this project, we discuss surrogacy as a networked phenomenon, constructed jointly by humans, material objects and institutions (Latour 2005). The project aims at identifying and examining key as well as peripheral actors and their interrelations in the field of suroggacy and related practices. Project will be based on ethnographic research, through which two key sides: surrogate women and intended parents’ motives, experiences, everyday lives and their interrelations will be studies. Besides, surrogacy agencies and clinics will be examined ethnographicaly. The research, by analyzing discourses of institutional actors will reveal how social relations, cultural norms, medical, religious or legislative regulations form the phenomenon of surogacy. 

Project publications:

Darchiashvili, Mariam, and Elene Gavashelishvili. “Entanglement of the Formal and Informal in Everyday Surrogacy Negotiations: The Case of Georgia.” Studies of Transition States and Societies 15, no. 1 (2023).