Washington Law Review

Essay

Foreword: Compensated Surrogacy in the Age of Windsor

December 17, 2014 | 89 Wash. L. Rev. 1069

Kellye Y. Testy

Having my baby, what a lovely way of saying how much you love me; Having my baby, what a lovely way of saying what you’re thinking of me . . . .

When Paul Anka sang those chart-topping words in 1974, the first sperm bank had recently opened in New York City, and it would still be four years before Louise Brown, the first "test-tube" baby, was born in England and yet another eight years before the now-famous Baby M was born. In celebrating his wife’s traditional pregnancy, Anka’s song achieved a rare coup—topping both the Billboard Hot 100 and many lists of the worst songs ever. The song made people of many different viewpoints commonly uncomfortable. Feminists and other liberal thinkers…

Essay

Bearing Children, Bearing Risks: Feminist Leadership for Progressive Regulation of Compensated Surrogacy in the United States

December 17, 2014 | 89 Wash. L. Rev. 1077

Sara L. Ainsworth

Abstract: Compensated surrogacy—an arrangement in which a woman carries and gives birth to a child for someone else in exchange for money—intimately affects women. Yet, feminist law reformers have not led efforts to regulate this practice in the United States. Their absence is notable given the significant influence of feminist lawmaking in a host of other areas where women’s interests are at stake. This lack of feminist law reform leadership can be understood, however, in light of the complex issues that surrogacy raises—complexity that has long divided feminists.

In response to efforts to pass surrogacy legislation in Washington State in 2010, Legal Voice, a women’s rights organizat…

Essay

Windsor, Surrogacy, and Race

December 17, 2014 | 89 Wash. L. Rev. 1125

Khiara M. Bridges

Abstract: Scholars and activists interested in racial justice have long been opposed to surrogacy arrangements, wherein a couple commissions a woman to become pregnant, give birth to a baby, and surrender the baby to the couple to raise as its own. Their fear has been that surrogacy arrangements will magnify racial inequalities inasmuch as wealthy white people will look to poor women of color to carry and give birth to the white babies that the couples covet. However, perhaps critical thinkers about race should reconsider their contempt for surrogacy following the Supreme Court’s recent decision in United States v. Windsor. In the decision, the Court envisions same-sex couples and the f…