Chapter 9 - Baby desired, travel required: negotiating international commercial surrogacy arrangements

Abstract

Growing numbers of people become parents through commercial surrogacy arrangements, with such arrangements involving payment made to women who carry a child for other people. There have been ongoing debates about the ethics of such arrangements, meaning that for those people who become parents as a result of a commercial surrogacy arrangement, their decisions and experiences are often placed under scrutiny. This chapter explores how people who had undertaken a commercial surrogacy arrangement legitimate their decisions, how at times surrogacy arrangements may be less straightforward than expected, and how some people face the concerns of their family members who may question commercial surrogacy as a way of having a child. The chapter highlights that commercial surrogacy arrangements are for many people fraught not just by the views of others, but also by the challenges of conceiving a child in another country, with the tyranny of distance being a key factor shaping their experience.