ABSTRACT
Mammals have the longest period of dependency of children on their parents—especially humans. Breastfeeding notably symbolizes the most fundamental social bond between the mother and child. Breastfeeding practice is a bio-cultural process connecting women’s bodies to infants’ bodies; it is socially determined and an essential element in cultural construction of sexuality. Language of “rights” has been constantly used in feminist thinking, be it the right to abortion, surrogacy, breastfeeding, sterilization—i.e. the will of the woman over her body. Commissioning mothers interested in inducing lactation may not be able to breastfeed exclusively and need to rely on supplements. In commercial gestational surrogacy, the main concern is to have a baby for the commissioning parents; breastfeeding the infant is a secondary or a non-issue. Even the importance of colostrum feeding is brushed aside; so few children are breastfed anyway in commercial surrogacy.
