Commercial Surrogacy As an Instrument of Exploitation

Abstract

Infertility is considered a disease in our society which should be catered as fast as possible. The idea of a blood child is so deeply rooted in our society that there are technological marvels or treatments developed by humans to solve the problem of infertility. One such technological marvel is Surrogacy, an arrangement in which a woman bears the child of other persons for nine months in her womb. Commercial gestational surrogacy refers to an arrangement when "the egg of the adoptive mother or an egg donor is fertilized with the sperm of the father-to-be or an anonymous sperm donor in a laboratory to produce an embryo. This embryo is then transferred into the uterus of the surrogate" (Majumdar 3) this arrangement rejects the popular taboo of sexual relations between the father-to-be and the surrogate and makes it an asexual mode of reproduction. In a popular notion, it is also linked as paid sex work because of the potential intimacy involved with pregnancy. In India, commercial gestational surrogacy is a booming business and becoming part of the international reproductive tourism. Due to the availability of economical treatment options and low-priced surrogates in the country because of the massive supply of Indian surrogates. It serves as a major source of income for the women who belong from the underprivileged section of the society and increases their standard of living. A country like India presents a welcoming outlook towards the surrogates, who bring about happiness in the lives of women longing motherhood. But commercial gestational surrogacy is an awful mechanism that traps women with economic incentives. Commercial surrogacy endangers women belonging from the underprivileged section of society as it firstly, puts unfair societal pressures on already vulnerable women, and secondly, their poverty and illiteracy are used as a mechanism of deceiving them.