From Soft to Hard Paternalism and Back: The Regulation of Surrogate Motherhood in Greece

RESCHEDULED FROM NOV. 8 A critical analysis of the regulation of surrogate motherhood in Greece. The paper discusses the way that a consensus reached in the legislative committee among liberal and conservative jurists on the matter of compensation of surrogate mothers was undermined by intra-party populism in the Greek parliament which banned it to avoid commodification. Inevitably the law fell into disuse leading to a new law which allowed government-defined compensation, not the one agreed on by the parties. The regulation of surrogate motherhood in Greece is a typical example of the deleterious effects of the combination of legal formalism and legal moralism in contemporary Greece.

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