Terri Swallow/Flickr. (CC 2.0 by-nc-nd)
Critics of surrogacy—a practice in which women contract to carry babies for others—see the practice as a glaring example of commodification of life and exploitation of women. Payment for procreation can seem particularly disturbing because it involves babies, generally understood as precious yet priceless. Some feminists argue that surrogacy is an alienating form of labour that deprives surrogates of their individuality, thus making them interchangeable. They also suspect that surrogates are poor, destitute women who are unaware of their interests, let alone are able to defend them. Such women have few choices in life and are thus easy subjects for exploitation. They further worry that surrogates’ voices are suppressed by powerful institutional actors such as agencies and specialists, ironically perhaps because many of these same critics dismiss surrogates’ accounts of wanting to help infertile couples as manifestations of ‘false consciousness’ or as socially appropriate expressions of veiled financial interest.
As much as surrogacy in the United States gives rise to ethical issues, given the lack of consistent and meaningful regulation of assisted reproduction in the country the empirical reality of American surrogacy does not match up with feminist critics’ doomsday view of it. My decade-long ethnographic research of www.surromomsonline.com (SMO), the largest moderated surrogacy information and support website, provides insights into the discussions and debates surrogates themselves have about the issues most important to them. Women not only voice opinions and concerns, but actively circulate advice about institutional actors, listing pros and cons about agencies, clinics, doctors, and lawyers. SMO is thus a source of accumulated knowledge that allows women to gain information, compare experiences, and be better prepared to understand the process of surrogacy. Experienced surrogates urge newcomers to research surrogacy, take charge of the process, and stand up for themselves. SMO surrogates maintain:
