Globalization and Transnational Surrogacy in India by Sayantani DasGupta

The normative and ethical aspects of commercial gestational surrogacy are covered thoroughly and well, with a range of points of view represented, but it is the material on the character of the global market for the 'commodification of the womb' that points in the most interesting direction, along with a couple of good chapters that detail the lack of regulation of this growing global industry, and recommend ways forward.Įthical and normative themes are best approached though Alison Bailey's excellent contribution (first published in Hypatia, 26, 4, 2011), which offers the notion of reproductive justice as a 'conversation starter' and a perspective capable of engaging the best insights from normative and ethnographic traditions. As is increasingly the way it lacks a reflective conclusion - the final chapter, a discussion by Amy Feinberg and Jennifer Maisel of a play they respectively directed and wrote, There or Here, about outsourcing, surrogacy, cultural identity and phone sex, doesn't fit that well. The editors provide a scene-setting introduction (a little duplicated in a good overview chapter by Varada Madge that might have come earlier) and on the whole the collection is strong and well put together. It is a useful addition to the growing literature on transnational gestational surrogacy, a particular virtue being the space given to direct testimony in practically every chapter from surrogates and others involved in the industry.

Both perspectives are reflected in this volume. From another, it is just a global market, like any other. From one perspective the transnational market for surrogates is of a special kind, with profound normative and ethical implications that revolve around the separation of gestation from conception, motherhood and parenting, and the exploitation of poor women in the South by wealthy would-be parents in the North.

Globalization and Transnational Surrogacy in India by Sayantani DasGupta