Abstract
ABSTRACT India is rapidly establishing itself as the world’s baby factory, with couples from both wealthy and impoverished countries flocking there to make specific reproductive decisions through accessible surrogates. These changes in medical technology have reinforced and normalized the concept of ‘wombs for rent’, converting the body of the Third world woman into an active site of reproductive exploitation and providing for the creation of a new kind of eugenics. This article is a critical intervention into surrogacy as an explicit manifestation of stratified reproduction through Amulya Malladi’s A House for Happy Mothers (2016). It also examines the bioeconomic and bioethical assumptions behind exploitative surrogacy practises based on systemic and structural disparities in India and proposes a Reproductive Justice framework to evaluate commercial surrogacy The essay claims that, while surrogacy is often considered to be free of compulsion and violence and classified as ‘subjective free choice’, it is financially driven, posing major questions regarding autonomy. The essay closes by analysing surrogates’ commercialization and dehumanization, as their wombs are viewed as ‘passive incubators’ and ‘prosthetics’, violently distanced from the baby.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
