When one’s mother identity is regulated and terminated by a contract, being a good mother often conflicts with bei.read more read lessĪbstract: In this ethnography of transnational commercial surrogacy in a small clinic in India, the narratives of two sets of women involved in this new form of reproductive travel – the transnational clients and the surrogates themselves – are evaluated. But she is simultaneously urged to be a nurturing mother for the baby and a selfless mother who will not negotiate the payment received. The surrogate in India is expected to be a disciplined contract worker who gives up the baby at the termination of the contract. However, unlike women in factories who have to be constituted as the perfect worker of managers’ dreams, surrogates have to be constituted as the perfect mother‐worker subject. She is produced, instead, in fertility clinics and surrogacy hostels. In this ethnographic study of commercial surrogacy in a small clinic in western India, I argue that a good commercial surrogate, like a good laborer of global production, is not found ready‐made in India. It is produced through the practices and rhetorics of the shop floor. Abstract: Feminist analysts of women in global production have demonstrated that “good” labor is not found ready‐made.
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