The Ultimate Argument. Evoking the Affective Powers of ‘Happiness’ in Commercial Surrogacy

Siegl, Veronika (2018). The Ultimate Argument. Evoking the Affective Powers of ‘Happiness’ in Commercial Surrogacy. Anthropological Journal of European Cultures, 27(2), pp. 1-21. Berghahn 10.3167/ajec.2018.270202

Text [17552931 - Volume 27 (2018)_ Issue 2 (Sep 2018)_ Intimate Uncertainties_ Ethnographic Explorations of Moral Economies across Europe. Guest Editors_ Sabine Strasser and Luisa Piart] The Ul.pdf - Published Version Restricted to registered users only Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Download (216kB)

This article explores how the notion of happiness is employed in order to obscure the moral ambiguity and intimate uncertainties of commercial surrogacy. My ethnographic data elucidate the ways in which surrogacy agents and other intermediaries operating in Russia and Ukraine evoke happiness. I discuss three forms of their affective labour: a discourse of fear and hope, the attempt to make surrogacy a joyous and happy process and the claim that there is a right to happiness. I contend that ‘happiness’ serves as the ultimate argument, an argument that has the affective power to override moral concerns and that delegitimise critique.

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