Wombs in labor : transnational commercial surrogacy in India / Amrita Pande.

  • Pande, Amrita
Date:
[2014]
  • Books

About this work

Description

Clients from all over the world hire Indian women to bear their children for a fraction of the cost of surrogacy elsewhere with little to no government oversight or regulation. In the first detailed ethnography of India's surrogacy industry, Amrita Pande visits clinics, lives in surrogacy hostels, and speaks with surrogates, their families, clients, doctors, brokers, and hostel matrons to capture the full mechanics of this burgeoning business and the experiences of the laborers within it. From recruitment to training to delivery, Pande's research focuses on the intersection of production and reproduction and its reflection of India's larger labor regime. Yet her work also showcases the strategies surrogates deploy to retain control over their bodies and reproductive futures. She ultimately advocates for a better understanding of this complex labor market, envisioning an international model for fair-trade surrogacy founded on openness and transparency in all business, medical, and emotional exchanges.

Publication/Creation

New York : Columbia University Press, [2014]

Physical description

xi, 252 pages ; 23 cm.

Contents

Introduction : wombs in labor -- Pro-natal technologies in an anti-natal state -- When the fish talk about the water -- Manufacturing the perfect mother-worker -- Everyday divinities and God's labor -- Embodied labor and neo-eugenics -- Disposable workers and dirty labor -- Disposable mothers and kin labor -- Conclusion: aporia of surrogacy.

Bibliographic information

Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-235) and index.

Languages

Where to find it

  • LocationStatus
    History of Medicine
    TPH.23
    Open shelves

Permanent link

Identifiers

ISBN

  • 9780231169905
  • 0231169906
  • 9780231169912
  • 0231169914