Social Stigma In Ostracism

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Social Stigma and Subsequent Ostracism
The common perception of surrogacy as seen in India has been accurately captured by Mary Douglas when she describes it as a “cultural anomaly”. The surrogates often face ostracism because society perceives surrogacy as an unconventional method of reproduction that challenges its traditional notions of motherhood.
Surrogates from rural families lack familial support as backward families do not approve of the idea of artificial reproduction. Additionally, society equates surrogacy to having intercourse with a stranger and commodifying the child and consequently disapproves of it. Surrogates are also accused of adultery and prostitution for carrying a stranger’s child. To avoid the resultant social stigma, the surrogates must resort to self-imposed ostracism by residing at the clinic hostels for the duration of their pregnancy or pretending to have suffered a miscarriage. Surrogates in these hostels face hardships such as restrictions on meeting family members and overcrowded living spaces besides obvious constraints on their freedom. However, this is the only viable solution as they do not have the resources to find alternative housing in the face of social ostracism. This dilemma would be abrogated if the social perspective shifted from viewing surrogacy as an abnormal method of reproduction to an alternative method of achieving the traditional end of a genetically related child.
Responding to the Feminist Critique
Some feminists endorse the view that surrogacy could be a tool to de-biologize motherhood which would consequently liberate women from the role assigned to them by maternal essentialism. The followers of this school of thought oppose surrogacy as they believe that women have...

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...merican Kinship”
3. Imrana Qadeer and Mary E. John, “The Business and Ethics of Surrogacy”
4. Amrita Pande, “At Least I am Not Sleeping with Anyone”
5. Elly Teman, “My Bun, Her Oven”
6. Kalindi Vora, “Potential, Risk, and Return in Transnational Indian Gestational Surrogacy”
7. Swati Bhattacharya, “Magical Progeny, Modern Technology: A Hindu Bioethics of Assisted Reproductive Technology”
8. Anonymous, History of Surrogacy: When and Where did it all begin
9. Judith Worell and Carol D. Goodheart (eds.), Handbook of Girls’ and Women’s Psychological Health
10. Lawrence O. Gostin, Surrogate Motherhood: Politics and Privacy
11. Katherine B. Lieber, “Selling the Womb: Can the Feminist Critique of Surrogacy Be Answered?”
12. Jean M. Sera, “Surrogacy and Prostitution: A Comparative Analysis”
13. Sugato Mukherjee, Legal and Ethical Issues of Commercial Surrogacy: An Overview

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