A Woman's Worth

32 Pages Posted: 6 Feb 2010 Last revised: 26 Dec 2014

Date Written: March 8, 2010

Abstract

This Article examines three traditionally “taboo trades”: (1) the sale of sex, (2) compensated egg donation, and (3) commercial surrogacy. The article purposely invokes examples in which the compensated provision of goods or services (primarily or exclusively by women) is legal, but in which commodification is only partially achieved or is constrained in some way. I argue that incomplete commodification disadvantages female providers in these instances, by constraining their agency, earning power, and status. Moreover, anticommodification and coercion rhetoric is sometimes invoked in these settings by interest groups who, at best, have little interest in female empowerment and, at worst, have economic or political interests at odds with it.

Keywords: Sex Work, Virginity, Prostitution, Oocyte Donation, Sperm Markets, Surrogacy, Medical Marijuana

JEL Classification: K00, K14, K34, K42

Suggested Citation

Krawiec, Kimberly D., A Woman's Worth (March 8, 2010). North Carolina Law Review, Vol. 88. p. 102, 2010, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1548929

Kimberly D. Krawiec (Contact Author)

University of Virginia School of Law ( email )

580 Massie Road
Charlottesville, VA 22903
United States

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