1. "There are two sides to everything": Re (locating) vulnerability in the surrogacy industry in India.
- Author
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Thapar-Björkert, Suruchi, Majumdar, Anindita, and Gondouin, Johanna
- Subjects
SURROGATE mothers ,PARENT attitudes ,PSYCHOLOGICAL vulnerability ,FEMINISM ,INTERVIEWING ,INFERTILITY ,QUALITATIVE research ,EXPERIENCE ,OVUM donation ,PSYCHOSOCIAL factors ,HUMAN reproductive technology ,BUSINESS ,SOCIAL classes ,LEGAL status of surrogate mothers ,FERTILIZATION in vitro - Abstract
Vulnerability is a pivotal concept for understanding transnational commercial surrogacy and the ethics of reproductive travel. While implicitly recognizing vulnerability as important, existing scholarship falls short of understanding the dynamism of vulnerability. Placing our empirical analysis in conjunction with the rich theoretical literature on this concept, we explore vulnerability in surrogacy arrangements in India as a "mode of openness," defined by its multilayeredness and context specificity. We focus on two retellings of vulnerability. In the first narrative, we analyse the journey of an intended parent who becomes an agent, while in the second narrative, we focus on the trajectory of a surrogate and egg donor becoming an agent. In both narratives, the layers of vulnerability across different interconnected circuits of reproduction—of intended parent, agent, and surrogate—are explicated. Our analysis illustrates the complex and conflicting meanings of vulnerability and illustrates vulnerability as an instigator of agency and resistance; how it can propel upward social mobility and animate attempts to transform an unjust system, but also how such individual agency and empowerment may serve to uphold exploitative relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023
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