麻豆社

Commercial surrogacy 鈥� the practice of paying another woman to carry a pregnancy to term 鈥� has been criticised for being exploitative, particularly when poorer women are recruited. Even if these women were paid more, and the exploitation element were reduced, would unease remain about 鈥渞enting out鈥� your body in this way? This essay from New Generation Thinker Gulzaar Barn will explore what, if anything, is different about the buying and selling of bodily services from other forms of trade. Should the body should be taken off the market?

Gulzaar Barn taught philosophy at the University of Birmingham and is now researching at King鈥檚 College, London in the Dickson Poon School of Law. The Essay was recorded at the Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead and a longer version with audience questions is available as a 麻豆社 Arts&Ideas podcast.

New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by 麻豆社 Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select 10 academics each year who can turn their research into radio.

Producer: Zahid Warley