Making a living by making life? Transnational circuits of egg donation and surrogacy between Russia and the European Union

Assisted sexual reproduction has increasingly become an inter- and transnational endeavour. This development creates new forms of labour at the intersections of gender, ‚race’, ethnicity, nationality, class and thereby reflects and reproduces existing power relations, while at the same time entailing emancipatory potential.

Since the mid-2000s, Russia has been evolving into a popular destination for so-called “fertility travellers” from the EU and the global North. In focusing on the perspectives and experiences of Russian egg donors and surrogates, this research project investigates how morals and values are employed to make sense of, judge, legitimise and govern the intimate relations produced in the transnational sphere of reproductive technologies.