The Gestational Surrogate’s Autonomy

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Published: Feb 24, 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/eml.32351
Kalomoira Sakellaraki
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and University of Peloponnese
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0148-0929
Abstract

The necessary consent of the surrogate mother is a safeguard of both her autonomy and her self-disposition
and guarantees not only the protection of human value (article 2, paragraph 1 of the Greek
Constitution) but also the protection of her personality (article 5 paragraph 1 of the Greek Constitution
and article 57 the Greek Civil Code). It is worth noting, after all, that sometimes it is necessary to restrict
the freedom of some people, in order to ensure the freedom of others. The gestational surrogate expectant
is not forced for her act. Autonomy presupposes the possibility of formulating and implementing
a decision, as a form of personal freedom, having as a result that pressure opposes the obstruction
of the surrogate mother and the future parents to do what they want and therefore feel free and not
be oppressed indirectly. On the other hand, Ronald Dworkin reports on the importance of autonomy in
reproduction. According to the liberal view of human value, a behavior is not characterized as inhuman
and degrading, nor immoral, in case it is not perceived as such by the subject who participates in it or
accepts it. Otherwise, an objective approach to this principle would be in case that a behavior is considered
to be inhuman by social criteria and regardless of the expression of the individual’s free consent
and her possible desire to continue in activities offensive to the individual.

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Author Biography
Kalomoira Sakellaraki, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and University of Peloponnese

Kalomoira K. Sakellaraki is a PhD of Applied Ethics Philosophy of the Interdisciplinary and Interuniversity Postgraduate Studies Program of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the University of Peloponnese and has completed her Doctoral Thesis, which is entitled “Rights and Surrogate Motherhood”. She has a Bachelor's Degree in Greek Philology from the University of Patras and a Master's Certificate in Philosophy of Ethics of the Interdisciplinary and Interuniversity Postgraduate Studies Program of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the University of Peloponnese. The aim of her research is to clarify the aspects that surrogacy arises under the guise of various rights theories and to emphasize the essential contribution of science to the efforts of childless couples to procreate. She is trying to ensure the autonomy of surrogate mother, which is not used as a means but as an objective to the attainment of the right to reproduce. She has published articles in scientific journals of philosophy and conference proceedings and has participated in World and International Congresses. She is a research fellow of the NKUA Applied Philosophy Research Lab and a member of the International Forum of Teachers.