Transnational Commercial Surrogacy and the (Un)Making of Kin in India

As commercial surrogacy in India dominates public conversations around reproduction, new kinds of families, and changing trends in globalization, its lived realities become an important aspect of emerging research. This book maps the way in which in vitro fertilization (IVF) specialists, surrogacy agents, commissioning couples, surrogate mothers, and egg donors contribute to the understanding of interpersonal relations in the process of commercial surrogacy. In this book, Majumdar draws from a context that is enmeshed in the local-global politics of reproduction, including the ways in which the transnational commercial surrogacy arrangement has led to an ongoing debate regarding ethics and morality in the sphere of reproductive rights. In weaving together the diverse, often conflicting experiences of individuals and families, the transnational commercial surrogacy arrangement comes alive as a process mirroring larger societal anxieties with reference to technological interventions in intimate relationships. It is these anxieties, dilemmas, and their negotiations to which the book is addressed.