{"id":3005,"date":"2016-04-03T18:58:33","date_gmt":"2016-04-03T17:58:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=3005"},"modified":"2016-04-03T18:58:33","modified_gmt":"2016-04-03T17:58:33","slug":"why-brits-why-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2016\/04\/03\/why-brits-why-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Brits? Why India?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Julie Bindel had a piece in\u00a0The Guardian<\/em><\/a><\/span> the other day about India’s surrogate mothers. \u00a0It makes for pretty grim reading. \u00a0Even if the surrogates are paid, and are paid more than they might otherwise have earned, there’s still a range of problems that the\u00a0piece makes clear.<\/p>\n

For one thing, the background of the surrogates is an important factor. \u00a0Bindel writes that<\/p>\n

[s]urrogates are paid about \u00a34,500 to rent their wombs at this particular clinic, a huge amount in a country where, in 2012,\u00a0average monthly earnings stood at $215<\/a><\/span>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s tempting, at first glance, to look at the opportunity to be a surrogate as a good thing in this context: these women are earning, by comparative standards, good money. \u00a0But, of course, you have to keep in mind that the standard is comparative. \u00a0If your choice is between doing something you wouldn’t otherwise do and penury, doing the thing you wouldn’t otherwise do looks like the better option. \u00a0But “better option” doesn’t imply “good option”. \u00a0So there’s more to be said there; more questions to be asked. \u00a0Choosing\u00a0x<\/em> over\u00a0y<\/em> because\u00a0y<\/em> is more awful doesn’t mean that\u00a0x<\/em> isn’t. \u00a0It might be a good thing; but it might not be. \u00a0There might be economic – structural – coercion. \u00a0Choosing to become a surrogate might be a symptom of there being no better alternative.<\/p>\n

A related question is this: are the women really making a free choice in offering their reproductive labour even assuming that the terms are economically just? \u00a0Possibly not:<\/p>\n

I have heard several stories of women being forced or coerced into surrogacy by husbands or even pimps, and ask Mehta if she is aware of this happening. \u00a0\u201cWithout the husbands\u2019 [of the surrogates] consent we don\u2019t do surrogacy.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Note (a) the non-denial, and (b) the tacit acceptance that it’s the husband’s decision anyway. \u00a0That’s not good.<\/p>\n

(In a wholly different context, I’ve recently been reading David Luban’s\u00a0Lawyers and Justice<\/em>, and – in a discussion about lawyers cross-examining complainants in rape cases, he makes this point:<\/p>\n

([H]ere we have two people who are confronted by powerful institutions from which protection is needed. \u00a0The defendant is confronted by the state [that is: in any criminal trial, the defendant does need protection from the power of the state – IB], but the victim is confronted by the millennia-long cultural tradition of patriarchy, which makes the clich\u00e9 that the victim is on trial true. \u00a0From the point of view of classical liberalism, according to which the significant enemy is the state, this cannot matter. But from the point of view of the progressive correction of classical liberalism, any<\/i> powerful social institution is a threat, including diffuse yet tangible institutions such as patriarchy. (p 151)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(The sentiment would seem to apply here. \u00a0A view of human agency that sees liberty as being mainly or only about avoiding state interference is likely to miss all kinds of much more subtle, insidious pressures that are liberty-limiting. \u00a0Economic factors are such pressures. \u00a0The idea of the wife as property is another.)<\/p>\n

I do wonder if readers of this blog might help out with answering one more question, though. \u00a0One of the startling claims is that<\/p>\n

[a]pproximately 12,000 foreigners come to India each year to hire surrogates, many of them from the UK.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t know how many “many” is, but let’s take as read that it’s more than none. \u00a0It’s a statistic that raises a question for Ophelia Benson over at Butterflies and Wheels<\/a><\/span>:<\/p>\n

Why India? Why not hire surrogates at home?<\/p>\n

Because India has a\u00a0lot<\/em>\u00a0of poor people, that\u2019s why. Because the price is a fifth of what it would be at home. Because it\u2019s a perfect setup for rich pale people to exploit very poor brown women.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t think that that’s quite got it. \u00a0As I commented on Ophelia’s piece, this wouldn\u2019t easily explain the UK factor. \u00a0As the article makes clear, commercial surrogacy is illegal here; surrogates are allowed only to recoup reasonable expenses. \u00a0Surrogacyuk.org suggests<\/a><\/span> \u00a37000 \u2013 \u00a315000 as a guide for the \u201cprice\u201d (I know I shouldn’t use that word, but you know what I mean) in the UK; but if Indian surrogates are paid \u00a34500, and the clinic is still making up to \u00a318000 on the transaction (assuming I\u2019ve not misread the article), the Indian market is likely to be more expensive for commissioners, even without the cost of travelling to India to begin with.<\/p>\n

So why do Brits use Indian surrogates?<\/p>\n

Here’s a hypothesis. \u00a0In the UK, surrogacy arrangements aren\u2019t enforceable, the woman who gives birth is automatically recognised as the mother, and a Parental Order is required for the commissioning mother\/ couple to be legally recognised as having parental status. \u00a0I don\u2019t know what the legal niceties are in India, but my guess is that that side of things is probably a bit easier to deal with. \u00a0After all, if the procedure there is as free-wheeling as Bindel suggests, keeping track of exactly who gave birth to whom and with whose eggs isn\u2019t going to be foolproof.<\/p>\n

Is that it? \u00a0Is there any other reason why people from the UK might commission an Indian surrogate mother?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Julie Bindel had a piece in\u00a0The Guardian the other day about India’s surrogate mothers. \u00a0It makes for pretty grim reading. \u00a0Even if the surrogates are paid, and are paid more than they might otherwise have earned, there’s still a range of problems that the\u00a0piece makes clear. For one thing, the background of the surrogates is […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1240,511,2148,328,475,2022,577,472],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogosphere","category-in-the-news","category-law","category-philosophy","category-politics","category-reproduction","category-resource","category-thinking-aloud"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Brits? Why India? - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2016\/04\/03\/why-brits-why-india\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Brits? 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