Gestational Surrogacy as a New Right: A Narrative Approach

As Jhering pinpoints, the birth of a new right is always painful and as with human birth, it involves a certain amount of violence. It is fair to say that the birth of the recognition of the right to gestational surrogacy is not without its complications. Although the practice has been technically possible since the late seventies, only a minority of States have granted legal recognition. It has been argued that gestational surrogacy constitutes a prior right which States must institutionalize. We will challenge this idea and then we will approach the issue from the perspective of narrative bioethics. It is this perspective, conceived in a certain way, which can not only shed more light but also push the boundaries to a greater extent than two of the most relevant methodologies in biomedical ethics, principlism and casuistry.