Woliver, Laura R. "Reproductive Technologies and Surrogacy: Policy Concerns for Women." Politics and the Life Sciences 8, 2 (Febraury, 1990):185-93.
Introduction. Reproductive technologies, such as ultrasound, amniocentesis, in vitro fertilization, and embryo transfer, are altering women’s experiences of gestation and birth while increasing the medicalization of women’s lives. These technologies bring a new series of policy issues to the courts and legislatures as they address how to incorporate new reproductive arrangements into our legal system. "Ethics has a kind of desperate post-hoc character these days," Elshtain (1989, p. 19) writes, following a course where: "First, certain techniques are perfected or modeled; then, we consult professional ethicists to advise us on whether we ought to be doing what we are, in fact, already doing." In the meantime disputes arising from new reproductive technologies are forced to fit old legal codes of paternity, maternity, baby-selling, adoption, and contracts. The new reproductive technologies and arrangements such as surrogacy are increasingly in conflict with old legal preceden ts and assumptions. Given the track record of the American legal system’s treatment of women, and given the enormous importance of new reproductive technologies to all women, this new policy domain engenders considerable concern about women’s reproductive rights and the lack of empowerment for mothers in family law. A forerunner of these issues is the celebrated "Baby M" case (Superior Court of New Jersey, 1987; the Supreme Court of New Jersey, 1988). This article explores the political and social context of the challenges posed by new reproductive technologies with emphasis on the relative power and powerlessness of women, the group potentially most affected by the legal changes incurred by these technological possibilities.