Surrogate labour: exceptional for whom?

Abstract

The desire for genetically related children is driving an exponential rise in assisted reproductive service provision worldwide, including the Global South. In India, the number of ART (Assisted Reproductive Technology) clinics has more than doubled over the past three years. This expansion has been accompanied by a similarly explosive growth in populist narratives that assert that one of the services offered by such clinics, commercial gestational surrogacy (CGS), is a form of labour that is so exceptional(ly) exploitative it should be banned. Provocative headlines proclaiming that surrogates are ‘Renting their wombs’ and ‘Pimping their pregnancies’ fuel such assertions, suggesting that surrogates become reduced to mere wombs, vessels for carrying the offspring of entitled and wealthy foreigners. Although superficially compelling, such arguments fail to withstand detailed interrogation. Utilizing insights from anthropology, the history of science and law and bringing to bear the findings of extended fieldwork in Mumbai, Jaipur and Delhi, I critically analyse three assertions made in relation to surrogacy: that it is (i) a particularly intimate or invasive form of bodily exploitation; (ii) a uniquely sacralized form of affective labour and (iii) a uniquely generative form of labour. In arguing against exceptionalism, I contend that such practices cannot be adjudged through application of universal ethical principles and norms, but rather must take account of the complexity of the lived experience of all the participants, placed in their sociological and geographical contexts.

Renting the Womb-Commercial Surrogacy, Exploitation and India’s Legal Oversight

“…The surge of commercial surrogacy worldwide has explosive narratives which view it as a form of labor exploitation (Parry, 2018). Feminist ethnographers argue that a perfect laborer of global production is not readymade but created through the relations of production and rhetoric of shop-floor life (Pande, 2010).…”

Ectogenesis and gender‐based oppression: Resisting the ideal of assimilation

“…Importantly, this perspective has been disputed or at least problematized. 48 Scholars have, for instance, discussed whether banning such a practice would be in the best interests of women who currently engage in surrogacy agreements; 49 whether gestational labour should be considered an exceptional form of labour; 50 and whether women's decision to enter in surrogacy agreements cannot be deemed as autonomous, 51 among other issues.…”

Right to be a Surrogate: Biological, Constitutional and Economic Perspectives

“…Comparing ancient practice widely prevalent across all cultures (O'reilly, 2010). these forms of body labour with those associated with mining and toxic chemical industries, a section of contemporary literature supports the former arguing that the latter involves lesser compensations, is riskier and takes a heavy toll on their health (Parry, 2018). In this context, banning commercial surrogacy entails no meaning with regard to being exploitative if industrial labour malpractices are not checked through better contract laws.…”