La surrogate motherhood negli Stati Uniti fra tutela della persona e contratto

This essay, after an introductory framework on surrogacy agreements in the Italian legal system, investigates their legal treatment in the US one. Not being ruled at the federal level, the legal regime of surrogacy agreements is laid down by states in multifarious ways; few states nowadays ban this kind of agreement, whereas a huge majority acknowledges them to varying degrees. The survey provides a fully-fledged analysis, paying attention to the diverse formants making up the US legal system: in particular, the legal, including the policy arguments underlying the solutions given by the state lawmaker, and the judicial ones. Attention will be addressed to the conflicting interests of intended parents – who enter into these agreements in order to satisfy their desire of being parents – and of the surrogate mother, whose privacy rights highlight her sphere of personal autonomy, grounded on physical, psychological, and emotional foundations.