Outsourcing Surrogacy

On March 10th, the New York Times covered an article about the increasing use of Indian women serving as surrogates for foreign couples. While commercial surrogacy remains illegal in many states and European countries, India legalized the practice in 2002, attracting many infertile foreign couples. The price of surrogacy in India, around US$25,000 is also a lot cheaper than in most Western nations. The Times article highlighted a specific clinic in India which keeps the procedure anonymous, never allowing the surrogate and the parents to meet, and always uses a separate surrogate and egg donor for each case. While the surrogates only get about $7,500 of the $25,000-$30,000 paid by the couple, this is often more than what many Indian women could make in a year. The lure of money attracts the Indian women while the cheap prices and government support attract foreign couples to seek wombs outside their country of origin.

While this is on a different subject than most of the other women's issues we have covered in this blog, I thought the article provided an interesting perspective on the legally and ethically contentious area of reproductive technology. The article highlighted some of the issues with using surrogates abroad and pointed the vast economic discrepancies that have led to this influx of Indian surrogates. While the Indian women receive a relatively high wage, they have very few rights when carrying another couple's baby. The article spoke about some of the calls for surrogacy reform in India and how these may help all the parties involved. While the idea of outsourcing reproductive processes may seem like a great way for poorer, infertile couples to create a family, it also reinforces global racial and economic hierarchies that place Indian women below the Western mothers and fathers -to-be.

Link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/world/asia/10surrogate.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=india%20and%20surrogacy&st=cse&scp=1