“You Were an Embryonic Dragon, Nurtured Temporarily in a Dog’s Belly” v. "children are a piece of heart". Surrogacy in China and Italy among Tradition, Ideology, Gender, and the Law

This paper aims at showing how the method of comparative law applied to surrogacy highlights intertwining issues of tradition, ideology, gender and the law in faraway contexts, thus contributing to overcome the lack of interest for a comparison with Chinese Family Law. Indeed, despite the great distance separating the Chinese and the Western European scenarios, both the Judeo-Christian tradition and ancient China provide interesting ante litteram examples of surrogacy, intended as the use of another woman’s body to overcome female infertility in a couple. We here focus on a comparison between China and Italy. Indeed, the two countries share a close link among family law, social morality and tradition, as well as a huge gender gap. The analysis shows, despite the differences in statutory law and courts’ decisions, the common attempt to protect women from exploitation and children from trafficking albeit ensuring the best interest of the child so conceived.