#surrogacy hostels

[gehayi]

by Glosswitch

When anti-choice Republican Justin Humphrey referred to pregnant women as “hosts”, I found myself wondering, not for the first time, whether everything had got “a bit Handmaid’s Tale.”

I’m not alone in having had this thought. Since Donald Trump won the US election, sales of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel have spiked and we’ve seen a plethora of articles telling us how “eerily relevant [it] is to our current political landscape.” In an interview during Cuba’s international book fair, Atwood herself said she believes the recent “bubbling up” of regressive attitudes towards women is linked to The Handmaid’s Tale’s current success: “It’s back to 17th-century puritan values of New England at that time in which women were pretty low on the hierarchy … you can think you are being a liberal democracy but then — bang — you’re Hitler’s Germany.”

Scary stuff. Still, at least most present-day readers can reassure themselves that they’ve not arrived in the Republic of Gilead just yet.

For those who have not yet read it, The Handmaid’s Tale tells the story of Offred, who lives under a theocratic dictatorship in what used to be the United States of America. White, middle-class and college-educated, Offred once enjoyed a significant degree of privilege, but now belongs to a class of women whose sole purpose is to gestate offspring for high-status couples. Much of the shock value of the story comes from the contrast between Offred’s former life – in which she had a name of her own - and her present-day existence. If this can happen to someone like Offred, it is suggested, surely it can happen to any of us.

Or so that is what a white, middle-class reader – a reader like me – might tell herself. Recently I’ve started to wonder whether that’s strictly true. It can be reassuring to stick to one narrative, one type of baddie – the religious puritan, the pussy-grabbing president, the woman-hating Right. But what if it’s more complicated than that? There’s something about the current wallowing in Atwood’s vision that strikes me as, if not self-indulgent, then at the very least naive.

In 1985, the same year The Handmaid’s Tale was published, Gina Correa published The Mother Machine. This was not a work of dystopian fiction, but a feminist analysis of the impact of reproductive technologies on women’s liberties. Even so, there are times when it sounds positively Handmaid’s Tale-esque:

“Once embryo transfer technology is developed, the surrogate industry could look for breeders – not only in poverty-stricken parts of the United States, but in the Third World as well. There, perhaps, one tenth of the current fee could be paid to women[.]”

Perhaps, at the time her book was written, Correa’s imaginings sounded every bit as dark and outlandish as Atwood’s. And yet she has been proved right. Today there are parts of the world in which renting the womb of a poor woman is indeed ten times cheaper than in the US. The choice of wealthy white couples to implant embryos in the bodies of brown women is seen, not as colonialist exploitation, but as a neutral consumer choice. I can’t help wondering why, if the fate of the fictional Offred is so horrifying to western feminists today, the fate of real-life women in surrogacy hostels is causing so little outrage.

I suppose the main argument of these feminists would be that real-life women choose to be surrogates, whereas Offred does not. But is the distinction so clear? If Offred refuses to work as a handmaid, she may be sent to the Colonies, where life expectancy is short. Yet even this is a choice of sorts. As she herself notes, “nothing is going on here that I haven't signed up for. There wasn't a lot of choice but there was some, and this is what I chose.” In the real world, grinding poverty drives women of colour to gestate the babies of the wealthy. As one Indian surrogate tells interviewer Seemi Pasha, “Why would I be a surrogate for someone else if I don't need the money? Why would I make myself go through this pain?"

None of the feminists who expressed shock at Justin Humphrey referring to pregnant women as “hosts” have, as far as I am aware, expressed the same horror at surrogacy agencies using the exact same term. As Dorothy Roberts wrote in Killing The Black Body, the notion of reproductive liberty remains “primarily concerned with the interests of white, middle-class women” and  “focused on the right to abortion.” The right not just to decide if and when to have children, but to have children of one’s own – something women of colour have frequently been denied – can be of little interest of those who have never really feared losing it (hence the cloth-eared response of many white women to Beyoncè’s Grammy performance).

As Roberts notes, “reproductive liberty must encompass more than the protection of an individual woman’s choice to end her pregnancy”:

“It must encompass the full range of procreative activities, including the ability to bear a child, and it must acknowledge that we make reproductive decisions within a social context, including inequalities of wealth and power. Reproductive freedom is a matter of social justice, not individual choice.”

It’s easy to mock the pretensions to pro-life piety of a pussy-grabbing president. But what about the white liberal left’s insistence that criticising the global trade in sexual and gestational services is “telling a women what she can and cannot do with her body” and as such is illiberal and wrong? “Individual choice” can be every bit as much of a false, woman-hating god as the one worshipped by the likes of Humphrey and Trump.

One of the most distressing scenes in The Handmaid’s Tale takes place when Janine/Ofwarren has just given birth and has her child taken from her:

“We stand between Janine and the bed, so she won’t have to see this. Someone gives her a drink of grape juice. I hope there’s wine in it, she’s still having the pains, for the afterbirth, she’s crying helplessly, burnt-out miserable tears.”

Right now there are women suffering in just this way. Only they’re probably not white, nor middle-class, nor sitting in a twee white bedroom in Middle America. Oh, and they’re not fictional, either.

The dystopian predictions of 1985 have already come true. It’s just that women like me didn’t notice until we started to be called “hosts”, too.

[coochiequeens]

Time to end commercial surrogacy 

HYDERABAD: With more and more people in pop culture opting for and celebrating surrogacy, people have been growing more accepting of the practice. But very few know of all the things that go behind and into the process — right from conception to the paperwork involved — the lack of knowledge about this, leading to the rights of several people being violated, says Dr Sheela Suryanarayana, who spoke about her book A Transnational Feminist View of Surrogacy Biomarkets in India at Goethe-Zentrum Hyderabad.

Surrogacy has been a curious case among many, with little to no understanding of the rules and pain that surrogates put themselves through once they agree to be a couple’s surrogate. Surrogacy is permitted in India only for altruistic purposes or for couples who suffer proven infertility or disease, while commercial surrogacy, which includes sale, prostitution or any other forms of exploitation, is banned in the country.Speaking about her research on commercial surrogacy, Dr Sheela says, “I have worked on this topic since 2009 and have spoken about it at the United Nations and Rajya Sabha and have now compiled my work into a book.

The book is about transnational surrogacy biomarket and how it functions in the global scenario. It talks about how the entire surrogacy biomarket reflects on the overall micro-level global inequality. It is largely the richer people making surrogate mothers of those from poorer countries as well as within their country. When commercial surrogacy was banned in India, Mexico and Nepal, the practice moved to other low-income countries like South Africa and other nations in South America and South East Asia.

There is a clear global pattern of how these surrogate markets are moving, looking for countries where poorer women are willing to do it for a lower price and lesser rights on their bodies and children. The vulnerability of surrogate mothers because they belong to the poorer section, less educated women, lesser employment opportunities and lesser nutrition makes them more liable to maternal morbidity and mortality. The profits share goes to the medical professionals instead of the surrogate mothers.”

She adds that when commercial surrogacy was allowed in India, women were put in surrogate hostels where they had to remain for a complete year. “Some breastfeeding mothers came in too, so they were given injections to dry the milk up or alter the hormones that could allow them to carry a baby,” she laments.

Talking about her book, Dr Sheela shares that her study dates back to 2009 when she intensely followed 11 surrogate mothers throughout the process. “The book is a case study of these mothers and five intended parents I met. The concept I focus on is the reproductive right of individuals being violated. I have known surrogate mothers who had their uterus removed because by they ended up bearing the brunt of big consequences like brain haemorrhage!”

She says that more and more women who belong to economically weaker communities, need to be aware of their rights: “The media, especially ones in vernacular languages can change this. They can spread awareness about the dangers and risks associated with surrogacy, while also speaking about their rights.”

[lifeofapmd]

Writing Exercise: 2 People Leave the Building

My sister and I stood outside of the lobby at 650 Park Avenue. Our shoulders touched side by side, but we barely spoke, aside from casual remarks such as "watch out there's gum on the floor."

We were two sisters, but we hadn't been in a while. The truth is, we grew up together but we could not have been more different. I wanted to see the world, to feel and touch and taste things I have never experienced before. My sister, molded by the toxic environment in which all East Asian, first generation American immigrants grew up in, was happy living in her bubble of suburban Queens, New York. While being a New Yorker awarded her the privilege of understanding the existence of different cultures and that everyone had a different perspective in the world (instead of narrower views someone from another less diverse place may afford), she was happy just "knowing".

I was not like that. Perhaps it's because I was the younger child, and the responsibility of being an older child restricted Anne's movements to explore. But I can tell you I lived it to the fullest. I went to France with my first boyfriend at 19 years old, hopping from one hostel to the other, getting drunk off 3 euro wines and singing and making out under the bridge by the Sienne River. At 22 .............

I was 52 now. My sister, 55. We had barely spoken to each other in 3 years, aside from the occasional phone call to wish each other happy birthday. Nowadays, the phone calls were even scarce when we could message each other through text and call it a day. I would send some red-envelope money on Chinese New Years and birthdays to her daughter and son, but I honestly never felt that attached to the kids because of the distance between my sister and I. Yet here we were, spending the longest time we had been with one another in a long time, post-announcement of my mother's will. None of it was a surprise. She had wanted to split all her assets three ways. One third to me, one third to her, and one third to Evan, our brother.

The last few years with our mother were very difficult.......

I hate to admit it, but I felt a relief once the assets were announced. Finally, the tie that held all three of us together were broken. Would this be the last time we see each other? We all had separate lives now, living in separate worlds. Anne had 2 children, joining PTA associations and baking cupcakes to fundraise for her childrens' elementary school. Evan became a partner at his law firm (whatever that means, but I'm happy for him), and thinking of surrogacy with his partner of 15 years, Robert. As for me, I was childless and free, ready to travel the world again upon release on my 3rd book in the Elder series. As we grew further apart, the only thing that glued us together was our ailing mother.

We took turns...

First try. What do you think? I think maybe one day I can turn this into a true novel.

[meddco11]

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[navigatethestream]

In 1985, the same year The Handmaid’s Tale was published, Gina Correa published The Mother Machine. This was not a work of dystopian fiction, but a feminist analysis of the impact of reproductive technologies on women’s liberties. Even so, there are times when it sounds positively Handmaid’s Tale-esque: “Once embryo transfer technology is developed, the surrogate industry could look for breeders – not only in poverty-stricken parts of the United States, but in the Third World as well. There, perhaps, one tenth of the current fee could be paid to women” Perhaps, at the time her book was written, Correa’s imaginings sounded every bit as dark and outlandish as Atwood’s. And yet she has been proved right. Today there are parts of the world in which renting the womb of a poor woman is indeed ten times cheaper than in the US. The choice of wealthy white couples to implant embryos in the bodies of brown women is seen, not as colonialist exploitation, but as a neutral consumer choice. I can’t help wondering why, if the fate of the fictional Offred is so horrifying to western feminists today, the fate of real-life women in surrogacy hostels is causing so little outrage. I suppose the main argument of these feminists would be that real-life women choose to be surrogates, whereas Offred does not. But is the distinction so clear? If Offred refuses to work as a handmaid, she may be sent to the Colonies, where life expectancy is short. Yet even this is a choice of sorts. As she herself notes, “nothing is going on here that I haven't signed up for. There wasn't a lot of choice but there was some, and this is what I chose.” In the real world, grinding poverty drives women of colour to gestate the babies of the wealthy. As one Indian surrogate tells interviewer Seemi Pasha, “Why would I be a surrogate for someone else if I don't need the money? Why would I make myself go through this pain?" None of the feminists who expressed shock at Justin Humphrey referring to pregnant women as “hosts” have, as far as I am aware, expressed the same horror at surrogacy agencies using the exact same term. As Dorothy Roberts wrote in Killing The Black Body, the notion of reproductive liberty remains “primarily concerned with the interests of white, middle-class women” and  “focused on the right to abortion.” The right not just to decide if and when to have children, but to have children of one’s own – something women of colour have frequently been denied – can be of little interest of those who have never really feared losing it (hence the cloth-eared response of many white women to Beyoncè’s Grammy performance). As Roberts notes, “reproductive liberty must encompass more than the protection of an individual woman’s choice to end her pregnancy”: “It must encompass the full range of procreative activities, including the ability to bear a child, and it must acknowledge that we make reproductive decisions within a social context, including inequalities of wealth and power. Reproductive freedom is a matter of social justice, not individual choice.” It’s easy to mock the pretensions to pro-life piety of a pussy-grabbing president. But what about the white liberal left’s insistence that criticising the global trade in sexual and gestational services is “telling a women what she can and cannot do with her body” and as such is illiberal and wrong? “Individual choice” can be every bit as much of a false, woman-hating god as the one worshipped by the likes of Humphrey and Trump.

The Handmaid's Tale has already come true - just not for white western women by Glosswitch

[cubisms]

Ok so it took a massive Hollywood production like The Handmaid’s Tale to get white women to give a fuck about forced surrogacy and how dehumanizing it is???? Shocking. the hottest tea tho is the fact that forced surrogacy has been alive all over Southeast Asia via surrogacy hostels – a child-bearing industry created/sponsored by white people. Swap out the gross economic pressures experienced by poor brown people with an oppressive theocratic regime and you have fairly identical situations.

So after y'all finish all ur pearl clutching over that particular theme of the show, please come to terms with the fact that the REASON you’re so uncomfortable is because you see a white woman representative of you that is 1) being imprisoned and subjugated by oppressive laws that never in your lifetime would affect you by virtue of you being white and 2) not capable of acquiring access to proper resources which would function as aids to justice.

This is the reality of millions of black and brown women all over the world. And while I’m glad y'all are finally getting woke to the lack of advancement of women’s reproductive rights in other parts of the world, I’m fucking appalled at the privilege you occupy to be able to react to this information as news in 20 fucking 17.

[parosaurus]

How The Surrogacy (regulation) Bill 2019 is important yet problematic.

How The Surrogacy (regulation) Bill 2019 is important yet problematic.

Why should one care about the surrogacy laws of their country?

This issue involves infertile couples and same sex couples to conceive and have a baby of their own, on the other hand with the commercialisation of surrogacy  it is being termed as rent a womb,

There are hostels where these commercialised pregnant women are kept for the course of their pregnancies.

After watching a few…