Racialized ethics of surrogacy: Transnational reproductive tourism and local surrogacy practices in Uganda

Abstract

This study examines surrogacy practices in Uganda by analyzing how various actors operationalize "ethical surrogacy" in inbound and local contexts. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Kampala, the study compares surrogacy programs organized by a foreign agency for Western intended parents with locally arranged surrogacy involving Ugandan agents and medical practitioners. The foreign agency promotes ethics through narratives of fair compensation and emotional connection. In contrast, local professionals articulate an ethical framework centered on strict separation to prevent emotional attachment and social conflict. These contrasting practices demonstrate that ethical surrogacy functions not as a universal moral standard, but as a situated discourse shaped by legal uncertainty, medical authority, race, and post-colonial power relations. By highlighting the management of affective labor, the study identifies multiple coexisting ethical frameworks. The findings challenge universalist bioethics and emphasize ethical pluralism as a constitutive feature of contemporary offshore reproductive practices in the Global South.