The Surrogate's womb

Abstract

The essay focuses on reproductive tourism and estrangement not only from our products and people who produce what we consume but also from our emotions and our intimate lives. Concretely, the author focuses on experience of commercial surrogates in India - poor women in whom a couple's embryo is implanted and who carry that baby to term for domestic or foreign clients. Drawing on interviews, the author analyses the world's largest womb rental service and how - out of financial need - the surrogate manages her emotional ties to her own body.