Parry Bronwyn
School of Global Affairs, King's College London, Room 4.19 Bush House North East, 40 Aldwych, London, United Kingdom.
Econ Soc. 2018 Jul 25;47(2):214-233. doi: 10.1080/03085147.2018.1487180. eCollection 2018.
The desire for genetically related children is driving an exponential rise in assisted reproductive service provision worldwide, including the Global South. In India, the number of ART (Assisted Reproductive Technology) clinics has more than doubled over the past three years. This expansion has been accompanied by a similarly explosive growth in populist narratives that assert that one of the services offered by such clinics, commercial gestational surrogacy (CGS), is a form of labour that is so exceptional(ly) exploitative it should be banned. Provocative headlines proclaiming that surrogates are 'Renting their wombs' and 'Pimping their pregnancies' fuel such assertions, suggesting that surrogates become reduced to mere wombs, vessels for carrying the offspring of entitled and wealthy foreigners. Although superficially compelling, such arguments fail to withstand detailed interrogation. Utilizing insights from anthropology, the history of science and law and bringing to bear the findings of extended fieldwork in Mumbai, Jaipur and Delhi, I critically analyse three assertions made in relation to surrogacy: that it is (i) a particularly intimate or invasive form of bodily exploitation; (ii) a uniquely sacralized form of affective labour and (iii) a uniquely generative form of labour. In arguing against exceptionalism, I contend that such practices cannot be adjudged through application of universal ethical principles and norms, but rather must take account of the complexity of the lived experience of all the participants, placed in their sociological and geographical contexts.
对有血缘关系孩子的渴望正推动着全球范围内辅助生殖服务的急剧增加，包括全球南方地区。在印度，过去三年里辅助生殖技术（ART）诊所的数量增加了一倍多。这种扩张伴随着民粹主义叙事的类似爆发式增长，这些叙事声称此类诊所提供的服务之一——商业代孕（CGS），是一种极其剥削性的劳动形式，应该被禁止。宣称代孕女性“出租子宫”和“贩卖怀孕”的煽动性标题助长了此类说法，暗示代孕女性沦为仅仅是子宫，成为有权有势的富有的外国人孕育后代的容器。尽管表面上有说服力，但这些论点经不起详细审视。利用人类学、科学史和法律的见解，并结合在孟买、斋浦尔和德里进行的长期实地调查结果，我批判性地分析了与代孕相关的三个论断：即它（i）是一种特别亲密或侵入性的身体剥削形式；（ii）是一种独特的神圣化情感劳动形式；（iii）是一种独特的创造性劳动形式。在反对例外论时，我认为不能通过应用普遍的伦理原则和规范来评判此类做法，而必须考虑到所有参与者在其社会和地理背景下的生活经历的复杂性。
