Redefining Motherhood: Problems of Surrogacy in Kishwar Desai’s Origins of Love

Abstract

There is a great deal concerning the body of woman. The flesh trade is now a legalized business. Organ transplantation fetches lot of money to the middleman. Kishwar Desai presents the story of multi-million business of surrogacy and artificial pregnancy going on in the modern world in her novel Origins of Love. Surrogacy is the recent trend found among the economically backward women in India. Fertility clinics are mushrooming in India. The desire of the couples for a child is exploited to its maximum by the doctors. The need for money to solve some crucial problems in life drives some young women to lend their womb for upbringing the child of some other couple. The money minded doctors and the agents, who supply the surrogate mother and the commissioning parents, make the money-deal to their maximum advantage. There are many issues related to the so called womb trade. Is it not violence against motherhood and womb? Is it not a denial of a child’s maternal care? Who will be the mother to the child? How will a woman simply forget the fruit of her womb? The psychological emptiness the mother feels is so severe that it may create mental imbalance. When the healthy embryo is selected what will be the fate of the rejected embryos? Is it not an abortion outside the womb? This paper presents the problems related to surrogacy in the light of the novel Origins of Love.