From Intercountry Adoption to Global Surrogacy: A Human Rights History and New Fertility Frontiers

Intercountry adoption has undergone a radical decline since 2004 when it reached a peak of approximately 45,000 children adopted globally. Its practice had been linked to conflict, poverty, gender inequality, and claims of human trafficking and led to establishment of The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption (HCIA) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), both of which affirm the best interests of the child. In 2004, as intercountry adoption peaked, the first baby in India from an international global surrogacy agreement was born. Since then, global surrogacy arrangements have rapidly increased and gained in popularity owing to improved assisted reproductive technology methods, the ease with which people can make global surrogacy arrangements, and same-sex couples seeking the option to have their own genetically-related children. Yet regulation remains an issue, so much so that it is predicted that the Hague Permanent Bureau will need to draft a global surrogacy law, taking on many of the dimensions found in the Hague Convention. This ground-breaking book build presents a detailed history and analysis of policy and human rights issues with an emphasis on the best interests of the child within intercountry adoption and the new conceptions necessary in global surrogacy.