Tag: intended parents

Film: Made in India

Made in India
Directors: Rebecca Haimowitz and Vaishali Sinha | 2010

“Made in India” is a feature length documentary film about an infertile American couple and their journey to India for a baby. The movie’s website describes it as “weaving together personal stories within the context of a growing international industry… [exploring] a complicated clash of families in crisis, reproductive technology, and choice from a global perspective.”

From the filmmakers:

As women deeply interested in issues of reproductive rights, social justice and global issues, the subject of “outsourcing” surrogacy to India captivated us from the moment we first read about the practice.

We aim to create a film that goes beyond sensationalist headlines and uncovers the personal lives and choices of the surrogates and the infertile Americans involved.

Learn more about “Made in India” > 

Article: The Trouble with Renting a Womb

The Trouble with Renting a Womb
By Abby Rabinowitz | The Guardian | April 28, 2016

This long article is well worth the read. It follows a group of gestational mothers in India, providing unusually deep insights into their lives, the contexts that frame their decisions, and their experiences within surrogacy arrangements and after. It also features conversations with the clinics and intended parents that hire gestational mothers, and touches upon the controversial effort to ban the practice in India.

Excerpt:

Critics say it is unlikely that banning foreign surrogacy clients will protect poor Indian women or end the practice. For one thing, surrogacy remains legal for heterosexual Indian couples. For another, transnational surrogacy is notorious for its elaborate work-arounds. When the Indian home ministry abruptly banned gay foreign surrogacy clients in 2012, Indian fertility clinics shipped Indian surrogates across the border to Nepal. When Nepal also banned transnational surrogacy in 2015, as did Thailand, industry insiders told me they believed that Indian surrogates were being rerouted to African countries instead. They also said that the ban will merely drive the practice underground.

Read the full article >

Article: As China’s One-Child Policy Ends, Surrogacy Services Rise in the U.S.

As China’s One-Child Policy Ends, Surrogacy Services Rise in the U.S.
By Kevin Smith | San Gabriel Valley Tribune | April 30, 2016

China’s reversal of its one-child policy has, according to this article, resulted in a rise in requests for gestational surrogacy in the United States. Featuring interviews with clinics and other go-betweens in California – including The Fertility Institutes in Encino – it attributes this “new wave of business” to a Chinese preference for boys (gender selection) and the possibility of citizenship for children birthed by gestational mothers in the United States.

The piece also covers some aspects of surrogacy-related law in California. This includes:

  • Required independent counsel for intended parents and gestational mothers.
  • Compliance with contract terms related to communication about medical visits, as well as dietary and travel restrictions.
  • Payments and benefits packages.  

Read the full article >

For more information on surrogacy laws in the U.S., read Tamar Lewin’s breakdown by state in The New York Times.

Article: Israel Evacuates Surrogate Babies From Nepal but Leaves the Mothers Behind

Israel Evacuates Surrogate Babies From Nepal but Leaves the Mothers Behind
By Debra Kamin | Time | April 28, 2015

This article follows the surrogacy relationship between Israel and Nepal, with a focus on Nepal after the 2015 earthquake. It describes the Israeli government’s evacuation of (Israeli) intended parents and their children, as well as resulting international criticism at leaving behind the gestational mothers that gave birth to the newborns.

The article also questions current law in Israel, which only allows heterosexual couples to use surrogacy in the country.

Read the full article >

For more, listen to “Birthstory,” a podcast about a gay couple from Israel that were in Nepal to pick up their surrogacy-delivered children when the earthquake hit.

 

Book: Politics of the Womb: The Perils of IVF, Surrogacy and Modified Babies

Politics of the Womb: The Perils of IVF, Surrogacy and Modified Babies
By Pinki Virani | Penguin | 2016
Buy at Amazon >

 

screen-shot-2016-10-25-at-11-53-42-amFrom the book description:

How safe is aggressive Ivf, invasive Icsi, exploitative ovarian hyper-stimulation and commercial surrogacy? Politics of the Womb proves that there can be broken babies and breaking mothers; it rips away the romanticism around uterus transplants, warns of genetic theft and designer babies , and points to the human element being sacrificed, as artificial reproduction uses, reuses and recycles the woman. Pinki Virani combines investigation with analysis to question those who lead the worldwide onslaught on the woman s womb in the name of babies, and squarely confronts what has become the business of baby-making by a chain of suppliers that manufactures on demand.

Read reviews of the book by Abantika Ghosh at The Indian Express,

From the review:

The book is infused with dollops of feminism, some rudimentary anatomy, physiology and a lot of search results for IVF research posing as factual analysis of the baby-making industry, when the conclusions the book arrives at appear to have been decided way before the first line was typed.

Podcast: Birthstory

Birthstory
By Molly Webster | Radiolab, WNYC Studios | Nov. 22, 2015

Birthstory is a collaboration with the radio show and podcast Israel Story, It traces the journey of a gay couple from Israel that travel to Nepal to pick up their surrogacy-delivered children. While there, Nepal is hit by a devastating earthquake, resulting in the controversial decision by the Israeli government to evacuate its citizens – and their children – but leave behind the gestational mothers. The story follows the couple home, their efforts to contact the (two) gestational mothers, and their reactions on hearing how the women have been treated by the agency in between.

Listen to the full podcast >

Report: Birthing a Market: Commercial Surrogacy in India

Birthing a Market: Commercial Surrogacy in India
By Sama – Resource Group for Women and Health | India | 2012

Excerpt from the Introduction:

sama - birthing a marketThere is an urgent need to initiate processes for a critical understanding of commercial surrogacy, that has assumed the proportion of a transnational industry towards building a collective, feminist response to it. This requires a strengthening of linkages between academia and activism that builds a perspective on the interaction of market, technology, patriarchy, and hetero-normativity as seen in this practice.

Further, the Draft ART Bill – 2010, prepared by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), necessitates a parallel process of mobilizing a wider response, particularly because this proposed legislation will be the first of its kind in South Asia, and is a step forward in checking the untrammeled commercialization of ARTs. In its current form, the Bill is hugely lacking in addressing this as well as the disadvantaged position of the surrogate.

Being a part of debates on the regulation of ARTs, which currently flourish in India in the absence of any state regulation, Sama has often been confronted with issues concerning citizenship, surrogates’ payments, and the contract between the surrogate and the commissioning parents.

Given this, Sama initiated the present research to gain insights into the lives of those at the heart of these issues—the surrogates—in order to make visible, and to better understand their perspectives, subjective experiences, and lives. The study scrutinizes the existing practices in the selected sites of research. Foregrounding the surrogate’s position in the arrangement and in the industry, the study examines several complexities regarding the terms of the contract, the multiple institutions and actors involved, their expectations and conditionalities regarding the surrogate pregnancy, medical practices and technological interventions.

Read the full report >

Article: Mexico Resists Becoming Next Reproductive Tourism “Paradise”

Mexico Resists Becoming Next Reproductive Tourism “Paradise”
by Isabel Reviejo | Latin American Herald Tribune | April 14, 2016

Excerpt:

This piece explores the role of Mexico as “the next niche” for international commercial surrogacy. It describes the scope of current law and legal loopholes, as well as attempts by the state to regulate the practice.

Read the full article >

Article: Gay Couple Win Custody Battle Over Thai Surrogate Mother

Gay Couple Win Custody Battle Over Thai Surrogate Mother
By Oliver Holmes | The Guardian | April 26, 2016

the guardianThis article follows up on a case in Thailand involving a same-sex couple that won a legal battle against the gestational mother who gave birth to their daughter, but refused to sign the paperwork to allow the baby to leave the country when she found out they were gay. It also provides links to articles covering the case of Baby Gammy and a 24-year old Japanese businessman who fathered 16 children with Thai gestational mothers – both of which led to the country’s current ban on the practice.

Read the full article >

For additional background on the case, read more by Oliver Holmes at The Guardian.

Article: Thailand Bans Commercial Surrogacy

Thailand Bans Commercial Surrogacy
By The Guardian | Feb. 20, 2015

the guardianThe Baby Gammy case made headlines in August 2014, when a Thai gestational mother claimed that Australian intended parents abandoned Gammy because of a diagnosis of Downs Syndrome.

This article provides an overview of the case and key elements of the law that came into effect soon after.

According to Thailand’s new law:

  • Foreign and same-sex couples are banned from seeking surrogacy services in the country.
  • Only married heterosexuals, with at least one Thai partner are allowed surrogacy.
  • No fees are allowed for the service.
  • Gestational mothers must be Thai, over 25 years old, and related to the intended parents.

Read the full article >

For more background on the Baby Gammy case and international commercial surrogacy in Thailand, read: