Transnational Cross-Racial Surrogacy: Issues and Concerns

The Indian movie Mala Aai Vhhaychy ("I Want to Be a Mother" in the Marathi language), in juxtaposition with the article in this issue of Affilia by Rotabi and Bromfield entitled "Intercountry Adoption Declines and New Practices of Global Surrogacy: Global Exploitation and Human Rights Concerns," bring to the surface several cultural, social, ethical, economic, and professional social work issues that I address in this editorial. The movie asks a challenging question in relation to mothering: Does the poor, rural, Gujarati (Indian) mother, who would benefit financially from surrogacy, have any claim to the child she is bearing for an American fertility-touring couple? More questions are raised with the possibility that the child may be born with a handicap, with the response of the commissioning couple, and additional more positive and negative twists in the story. Rotabi and Bromfield's article raises the ethical dilemma as well as human rights concerns arising from international surrogacy, using India as a case example. Both the movie and the article focus on gestational surrogacy by Indian women, for predominantly western couples.