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The Motives Behind Post-Soviet Women’s Decisions to Become Surrogate Mothers

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Abstract

Russia is one of the few countries, where commercial gestational surrogacy a legal for locals and foreigners. Even though surrogacy in Russia is stigmatized, a sizeable number of Russian women would like to become surrogates. Drawing on SelfDetermination Theory and based on a qualitative content analysis of 656 posts in a Russian-language online forum for SMs, this paper explores how Russian surrogates conceptualize their occupation and what are their primary aims and motivations for surrogacy. They discuss four interrelated motives: 1) Financial: SM is a job, even a profession, that should be properly remunerated, 2) Social: SMs enjoy their unique and indispensable role as carriers of future children that could not be born otherwise, 3) Hedonistic: SMs enjoy the very experience of pregnancy and related body sensations, and 4) Moral: SMs find satisfaction in contributing to common good and ensuring future happiness of a childless couple. Judging by the posts on the website under study, the extrinsic and intrinsic aspects of these motives are closelyintertwined.

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  1. Communication Study Department, Ben-Gurion University in the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel

    Natalia Khvorostianov

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  1. Natalia Khvorostianov
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Correspondence to Natalia Khvorostianov.

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The author has no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Ethical Approval

Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the Review Board of the Ben Gurion University in the Negev. Although the study relied on publicly accessible documents, considering that “people may operate in public spaces but maintain strong perceptions or expectations of privacy” (Markham & Buchanan, 2012, p. 6), the nicknames of all participants in the study were changed. All quotes cited in this study were translated from Russian and were rephrased.

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A waiver of consent for authors in the network was obtained from the ethical review board since obtaining permission from anonymous forum participants is not practically possible.

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Khvorostianov, N. The Motives Behind Post-Soviet Women’s Decisions to Become Surrogate Mothers. Sexuality & Culture 27, 38–56 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-022-10002-w

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