Hatzis, Aristides N.2018-06-112018-06-112009-12Hatzis, Aristides N. (2009). "From soft to hard paternalism and back : the regulation of surrogate motherhood in Greece". Portuguese Economic Journal, 8(3):205-2201617-982X (print)1617-9838 (online)http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/15595This paper is a critical analysis of the regulation of surrogate motherhood in Greece; I will discuss the way that a consensus reached in the legislative committee among liberal and conservative jurists on the matter of compensation of surrogate mothers was undermined by intra-party populism in the Greek parliament which banned it to avoid commodification; inevitably the law fell into disuse leading to a new law which allowed government-defined compensation, not the one agreed by the parties; the regulation of surrogate motherhood in Greece is a typical example of the deleterious effects of the combination of legal formalism and legal moralism in contemporary Greece.engSurrogate motherhoodCommodificationLegal formalismLegal moralismLegal paternalismEconomics of contractsExploitationConsentCompensationjournal article10.1007/s10258-009-0049-5