Reconceiving Surrogacy: Toward a Reproductive Justice Account of Surrogacy Work in India

RECONCEIVING SURROGACY: TOWARD A REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE ACCOUNT OF INDIAN SURROGACY, Hypatia. Special FEAST Issue, Diane T. Meyers, ed., Vol. 26, No. 4, Fall 2011

30 Pages Posted: 5 Dec 2009 Last revised: 27 Jul 2011

See all articles by Alison Bailey

Alison Bailey

Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Illinois State Universtiy, College of Arts and Sciences - Philosophy Department

Date Written: November 30, 2009

Abstract

My project here is to argue for situating moral judgments about Indian surrogacy in the context of Reproductive Justice. I begin by crafting the best picture of Indian surrogacy available to me while marking some worries I have about discursive colonialism and epistemic honesty. Western feminists’ responses to contract pregnancy fall loosely into two interrelated moments: Post-Baby M discussions that focus on the morality of surrogacy work in Western contexts, and feminist biomedical ethnographies that focus on the lived dimensions of reproductive technologies and how they are embodied and negotiated in specific cultural contexts. Both approaches have their shortcomings. Uncritically extending Western moral frameworks (e.g. liberal feminist political values) to Indian surrogacy work raises the specter of discursive colonialism; and with it, worries about how Western normative traditions can distort, erase, or misread non-Western subjects lived experiences. Feminist biomedical ethnographic approaches correct this, but raise the specter of a weak moral absenteeism; and with it, concerns about under theorizing the structural harms and injustices shaping surrogate worker’s lives. I suggest that we might reduce these shortcomings by framing normative and ethnographic engagement with global surrogacy as questions of reproductive justice.

Keywords: Indian Surrogacy, Reproductive Tourism, Reproductive Justice, Feminist Bioethics

Suggested Citation

Bailey, Alison and Bailey, Alison, Reconceiving Surrogacy: Toward a Reproductive Justice Account of Surrogacy Work in India (November 30, 2009). RECONCEIVING SURROGACY: TOWARD A REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE ACCOUNT OF INDIAN SURROGACY, Hypatia. Special FEAST Issue, Diane T. Meyers, ed., Vol. 26, No. 4, Fall 2011, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1518026

Alison Bailey (Contact Author)

Illinois State Universtiy, College of Arts and Sciences - Philosophy Department ( email )

Normal, IL
United States
309 438 5617 (Phone)
309 438 5104 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.womensandgenderstudies.ilstu.edu

Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies ( email )

Normal, IL
United States
309 438 5617 (Phone)
309 438 5104 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.womensandgenderstudies.ilstu.edu

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