Abstract

The objective of this article is to unravel the complexity of the relationships and definitions that are found in the context of surrogacy, investigating, on the one hand, the actual relationships, both material and symbolic, and, on the other hand, the language used by the legal sources, to test the suitability of the language of laws and judgments – a language that holds power – in relation to its material and relational referents. Under examination is the public discourse, of the legislator or the courts, which establishes the rules by which one can officially distinguish a pregnancy “for oneselfµ from a pregnancy “for othersµ. The “subrogationµ, that is the substitution of motherhood, in fact means, in nuce, the affirmation, supported by the force of the law, that the women we see giving birth is not the mother, that the newborn is not her child.