Exploited Exploiters, Victimized Victimizers: Reading the Matthean Mothers alongside the Contextual Body of the Indian Surrogate Mother in Postcolonial India

Abstract

The phenomenon of outsourcing has taken on a new meaning in the surrogacy industry, as infertile couples (both Indian and non-Indian)1 with considerable financial resources seek out and hire the local wombs of poor Indian women for the purposes of generative labor. Sentiments regarding the ethical and moral nature of this practice are quite often divided. Journalist Sagarika Ghosh documents one such exchange in the television program, Face the Nation. Ghosh interviews four prominent women, two of whom are Dr. Indira Hinduja, a gynecologist at a reputed hospital in India, and Kishwar Desai, author of the novel Origins of Love. When asked if commercial surrogacy is a practice that exploits the poor women in India, Dr. Hinduja responds: “If the poor woman is carrying a baby to give someone a very meaningful, profound life, meaningful result to its life, if the couple by themselves, by their pleasure—want[s]to compensate those women, what’s wrong with that? ”2 Advocates of modern surrogacy like Dr. Hinduja, highlight the business of surrogacy as an altruistic practice by suggesting that such a transaction is a win-win situation for both the women involved. However, as critics have duly noted, such an argument fails to pay attention to the redesignation of “women’s labor” as a commodity exchanged in the free market for a price.KeywordsIndian SurrogateSurrogate MotherBiblical TextPatriarchal StructurePatriarchal NormThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.