308 F. Giles
being conceived of as a gift testifies to the co-extensiveness of these
attributes.
To openly recognise human milk as ‘“civic property” ... span-
ning the theoretical divide between private and public... based on the
public good’, would provide women with real compensation for their
milk, while allowing for a regulatory framework to safeguard its qual-
ity (Swanson 2014 : 13). This would be similar to Michele Goodwin’s
recommendation to enable altruistic donation based on a ‘relational
framework’ within what she terms ‘intimate markets’ to coexist with a
state-regulated, paying market ( 2009 : 837). Institutionally controlled‚
screened milk could still be distributed to those most in need, while
informal sharing could be the preserve of parents with healthy babies, or
other children and adults. Remuneration has been provided historically
to the ‘bodily product seller’ for sperm and blood, and was provided for
milk until the Great Depression (Swanson 2014 : 197).
Skitolsky describes the dilemma that breastfeeding advocacy has
resulted in, with breastmilk elevated to the gold standard but its supply
strictly confined to heteronormative families who find exclusive breast-
feeding easy to achieve. That is, ‘either mothers breastfeed their own
children or those children are unduly deprived of breast milk and all
of its benefits’ ( 2012 : 65). Skitolsky argues that because breastfeeding
for some women is extremely painful, at least when becoming estab-
lished, access to an alternative breastmilk supply would enable mothers
to resume breastfeeding once they’ve recovered (as long as they main-
tain their supply during the first six weeks through pumping). Because
mothers are culturally primed to accept sacrifice and suffering in the
course of motherwork, she notes that ‘often, maternal pain is viewed as
a necessary sacrifice rather than a problem of what Emmanuel Levinas
would call “Useless suffering”’ ( 2012 : 64). ‘This effacement [of suffer-
ing] is reinforced by the normalisation of women’s suffering as a “natu-
ral” part of pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and mothering, rather than
a serious problem for women’s emotional and physical health. It is time
we regard women’s suffering in the course of breastfeeding as useless, as
a moral objection, which for Levinas is “unpardonable and solicits me
and calls me”’ ( 2012 : 65). The opening out of uses for donated milk,
such as to bridge gaps when mothers are ill or establishing their supply,
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