Surrogate Mothers and Gay Fathers: Navigating the Commercial Surrogacy Arrangement in India

Abstract

The commercial surrogacy arrangement in India brings together diverse sets of people in the process of making a child. The Indian surrogate mother incubates an artificially fertilized pregnancy for an Indian or overseas couple in an Indian IVF (in vitro fertilization) clinic and then relinquishes the child as per the contract. But the process of commercial gestational surrogacy involves many forms of negotiations over relationships and identity that complicate its actual execution. This paper explores the Indian surrogate and the foreign gay couple in their navigation of the surrogacy arrangement in India. In popular representations in the media and policy discussions, they are both caught between questions of reproductive choice and agency, but in reality arrangement is complicated and complicates their role within the arrangement.