Serving the transnational surrogacy market as a development strategy

Abstract

This chapter engages with the transnational market of gestational surrogacy resulting from the innovation and spread of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) and reproductive services. In this new transnational market, women of lower economic and social status—often situated in the Global South—provide reproductive materials such as ova and surrogate services for elite women who come to the Global South in their search for inexpensive fertility treatment. Mapping the geographies of transnational surrogacy, this chapter first discusses the spatial expansion of surrogacy markets within the Global South. Second, drawing on India as a case study, it is questioned to what extent transnational surrogacy can be considered a development strategy both for national developing economies and for individual women in the Global South. The chapter concludes discussing the implications of these new markets for feminist research.