Who and What is a Mother? Maternity, Responsibility and Liberty

European Journal of Law Reform, 2015

For the past 15 to 20 years there has been intense discussion in many European countries how mothers in a crisis situation can be prevented from abandoning or even killing their new born babies. Baby-boxes have been installed in a number of countries and/or possibilities for anonymous birth have been discussed or introduced. The Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed concern over these developments and stated that both developments infringe on the child's right to know its origins. Both Germany and the Netherlands have taken steps to protect new mothers and their babies in crisis situations by introducing a form of secrecy surrounding the mother's identity. In Germany this has taken the form of a recently introduced law that keeps the birth and the identity of the mother confidential, in the Netherlands this has taken the form of a protocol drawn up by professionals which aims to keep the birth and the mother's identity secret. This article will compare and critically discuss these developments in Germany and the Netherlands.

Motherhood and the law, 2019

Who is a child’s legal mother? Must a child have exactly one mother, can it have two or three, or can it have two fathers, but no mother? Or has the concept of motherhood become obsolete and should we just talk of parenthood in a gender neutral way? Questions such as these would have appeared esoteric only a few decades ago, but as a result of new social developments (such as frequent family reconstitutions, gay and lesbian emancipation or surrogacy) and of technological innovations (such as egg and embryo donations) they have become issues in a vehement debate. The interdisciplinary contributions to this book focus on the legal defi nition of motherhood, on the way in which legal conceptions structure the social discourse on motherhood (and vice versa), and on the influence of legal rules on power relations between mothers, fathers, children and the state. Among the issues addressed are – the challenges to our understanding of the legal regulation of motherhood by developments in reproductive medicine; – the challenges to our understanding of the legal regulation of motherhood by parental constellations deviating from the mother-father-model (single motherhood by choice, same-gender parenthood, multiple parenthood); – the exercise of parental rights in case of parental separation and the impact of legal rules on the bargaining positions of mothers and fathers.

2015

For the past 15 to 20 years there has been intense discussion in many European countries how mothers in a crisis situation can be prevented from abandoning or even killing their new born babies. Baby-boxes have been installed in a number of countries and/or possibilities for anonymous birth have been discussed or introduced. The Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed concern over these developments and stated that both developments infringe on the child’s right to know its origins. Both Germany and the Netherlands have taken steps to protect new mothers and their babies in crisis situations by introducing a form of secrecy surrounding the mother’s identity. In Germany this has taken the form of a recently introduced law that keeps the birth and the identity of the mother confidential, in the Netherlands this has taken the form of a protocol drawn up by professionals which aims to keep the birth and the mother’s identity secret. This article will compare and critically discus...

Book review

Arguably we are living in a culture that continues to frame motherhood as fundamental to feminine identity. This examination understands motherhood as a social construction rather than a naturalised female state. A foucauldian analysis is used to deconstruct dominant discourses and frames of knowledge, which produce regulatory power relations surrounding motherhood. Historical processes and normalising discourses continue to interlink with, and influence, modern day conceptions of motherhood. Although particularities have shifted over time, naturalistic discourse remains, framing the married, middle class, heterosexual woman as the perfect mother. Those who fall outside of this dominant discourse, such as teen and single mothers, become stigmatised as failed mothers who have broken the codes of femininity. State rhetoric and policy maintains and reproduces this stigmatisation with notions of the single mother being an underlying cause of societal problems, particularly anti-social behaviour. However, some have argued these dominant discourses are beginning to be transcended by voluntary childlessness, in which women are seen to enact greater agency within reproductive choice. Despite this, extensive criticism of these women for their decision demonstrates the widespread embedded nature of the discourse of traditional motherhood. Consequently, the intertwined nature of motherhood and femininity is damaging for both mothers and non-mothers. This examination understands the deconstruction of this dominant discourse as essential for creating a distance between the entangled notions of femininity and motherhood, possibly enabling a more positive conception of both femininity and motherhood to ensue.

Issues of what personal autonomy and identity means are investigated in the context of the European Court of Human Rights' development of Article 8's right to respect one's private life into a right to personal autonomy, identity and integrity with particular reference to French anonymous birthing as explored by that court in Odie`vre v France and feminist literature on mothering and autonomy. Although much critiqued by feminists, personal autonomy has been reconceptualised to mean something of worth to women. Yet, this version of autonomy can diverge into two directions in terms of individual identity as evidenced in Odie`vre and in feminist literature: self-determination or selfrealisation/authenticity. Conclusions are reached that making autonomy dependent on claims to 'authenticity' restricts personal freedom and thus ultimately identity. * This article builds on work and material contained in K. . I am grateful to Katherine O'Donovan for introducing me to the French work in this area and this subject as a context for my work on personal freedom, autonomy and identity. I also thank Lior Barshack, Ruth Zafran and Roy Gilbar for their comments on an earlier version of this paper presented at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel in the summer of 2006, and the participating students at that seminar for their insightful questions and comments.

Sarai Reader 5: Bare Acts

This text argues for a special new "mother-citizen" concept that was practiced in the USSR, with its connection between Soviet Motherhood, the state, with its patriarchal militarism, and the politicized notion of motherhood. Hence, post-Soviet motherhood and its political outlook should be understood in its historical context.

2013

An extensive feminist literature explores how law interacts with the social institution of motherhood and with the ideological frameworks that contribute to women’s oppression in western, liberal states. This chapter’s main concern is with feminist theories about law’s role in relation to motherhood, which reflects both coercive and ideological aspects. Women can be coerced into normative ideals of motherhood and penalized for failure to conform, but they can also \u27consent\u27 or choose to conform to ideological norms, raising far more complex questions for feminists and for feminist legal strategy. The chapter also explores the degree to which law and feminist legal strategies reinforce and/or challenge dominant ideologies of motherhood, which are rooted in the histories of race, class, gender and sexuality. Another theme is the differential impact of legal regulation, depending on whether a mother is working class or middle class, racialized or non-racialized, lesbian or straig...

2013

An extensive feminist literature explores how law interacts with the social institution of motherhood and with the ideological frameworks that contribute to women’s oppression in western, liberal states. This chapter’s main concern is with feminist theories about law’s role in relation to motherhood, which reflects both coercive and ideological aspects. That is, women can be coerced into normative ideals of motherhood and penalized for failure to conform, but women can also ‘consent’ or choose to conform to ideological norms, raising far more complex questions for feminists and for feminist legal strategy. The chapter also explores the degree to which law and feminist legal strategies reinforce and/or challenge dominant ideologies of motherhood, which are rooted in the histories of race, class, gender and sexuality. Another theme of this chapter is the differential impact of legal regulation, depending on whether a mother is working class or middle class, racialized or non-racialize...