Pande argues that the very specific tactics used to recruit and take care of surrogates creates an idealized “worker-mother.” In order to most effectively perform this labor, they must nurture the babies they are carrying as if they were their own children however, once the baby is born, they are not allowed to have any emotional attachment to it, as another family already has claim to it. The women then spend the duration of their pregnancies in hostels, where they are under constant surveillance and must abide by a strict schedule. The money the woman will make from the surrogacy is equal to about five years’ worth of her annual income. A “broker” recruits women to become surrogates generally, they look for women who desperately need money and who feel a sense of guilt about their ability to be a mother to their own children. Surrogates carry babies primarily for other couples in India, but some carry for international clients. Commercial surrogacy is fairly common in India because there are no government regulations to oversee it as a result, each clinic makes its own system and rules. In Amrita Pande’s article “Commercial Surrogacy in India: Manufacturing a Perfect Mother-Worker,” Pande discusses the practice of commercial surrogacy in India, in which Indian women are hired to carry and deliver a baby for someone else.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |