Choosing a "Good" Commissioning Couple
According to participants, negotiations proceeded in specific steps. After
posting a message on a web board, prospective surrogates received contacts
from interested couples via email or telephone. (The number of enquires
received by participants in this study ranged from several to 20.) Surrogates
and couples may agree to meet in person. Although several prospective surrogates
were contacted by a brokering agency based abroad, the vast majority of
intended parents who made enquiries were from within the country. Arunwan
stated that she had refused one surrogacy agreement because the Thai intended
parents wanted her to live with them during pregnancy and then feed the
baby. Although she was offered 600,000 baht when she delivered twin babies,
she did not leave Bangkok.
During negotiations, agreement is reached over such issues as how much
money will be paid for a single or twin delivery. From the prospective surrogate's
point of view, a transaction should not be too "business-like", and
intended couples should be sympathetic. Eakarapong stated that she would
agree to reduce the price if the intended parents were not rich because "they
have paid a lot of money for infertility treatment." However, she added, "I
would not agree to a discount if the intended mother asked me to be a
surrogate due to fears about losing her figure." Nattaporn, who had already
completed a round of surrogacy and was looking for another commissioning
couple, also stated; "the important thing is how much they can protect me,
how much they care. That is more important than money."
A few women noted that they expected special treatment and protection by
expectant mothers during pregnancy. Natthakarn, who already had surrogacy
experience, stated: "I was given an apartment close to the intended parent's
house. They often communicated with me. I was cared for and felt safe when I lived near their house." Satorn, who was single but wished to get pregnant
for others, was expecting to receive special treatment from a rich childless
couple in exchange for delivering their child. She stated: "My commissioning
couple is very rich. They run a company that I have visited several times.
They are so kind and friendly. When I succeed in getting pregnant, I will be
given an apartment close to the intended parents' house. The intended mother
often communicates with me by phone. I will be able to get healthcare and
feel safe when I live near their house during the pregnancy." To become a
surrogate was seen as a means to forge a lasting personal relationship with a
commissioning couple who were richer and belong to a higher social stratum.
Similarly, several other prospective surrogates expected that their compassion
in helping an infertile couple would be reciprocated not only by monetary
payment but by special treatment during pregnancy and after the delivery. In
short, surrogacy cannot be treated like a commercial service, and a surrogate
mother's willingness to help should be met by a commissioning couple's eagerness
to care for, protect, and provide needed benefits to a surrogate mother.
IV. Discussion
After describing the major findings of our study, we discuss them in the context
of the results of other studies, conducted in the US, Israel, and India,
countries that contain more established commercial surrogacy programmes.
The regular involvement of a third party in the form of an egg donor or
a surrogate mother has been accompanied by the commercialisation of the
process of third-party assisted procreation and "commodification" of female
bodies. The commercialisation of human reproduction has taken on a global
dimension with the spread of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) facilities and technical
expertise around the globe. The fact that Thailand is not totally immune to
this trend is clearly exemplified by messages posted on internet forums offering
"eggs for sale" or "wombs for rent." Commodification of female bodies
occurs at the juncture of the development of information technology and the
dissemination of access to cyberspace on the one hand, and the spreading of
ARTs on the other hand. Because Thailand is known for its flourishing sex
industry, in which poor women's bodies are commodified to fulfil the desires
of domestic and foreign men, ARTs may serve as a medium through which
Thai women are exploited and their body parts are alienated from them for
distribution in local and global markets (Van Esterik 1990). In this view,
surrogacy is yet another form of the commodification of the female body, and
it is attributable to the procreative desire of both men and women.
However, such a view can be an oversimplification. A common image of
commercial surrogacy is that the "unnatural" practice of becoming pregnant to
turn the child over to another parent could only be made as a "desperate
choice." That is, a stereotype of a surrogate mother is that they are women "compelled" by poverty and destitution. For example, based on a commonly
drawn analogy between prostitution and surrogacy, Tong stated: "Most surrogate
mothers, like most prostitutes, are much poorer than the people to whom
they sell their services. Unable to get a decent job, a woman may be driven
to sell her body if it is the only thing she has that anyone seems to value
enough to buy"(Tong 1997: 200–1). Our interviews suggest that this view is
not unanimously held (see also Teman 2008).
The prospective surrogate mothers we interviewed were certainly poorer
than the intended parents with whom they negotiated, and some interviewees
referred to the pressing financial needs of their families as a reason for becoming
a surrogate; pressing financial needs arose from divorce, underpayment,
and other reasons. However, as more than half the participants were college or
junior college graduates (eight of 15), not all prospective surrogate mothers
interviewed belonged to a lower social stratum. Many of the interviewees were
employed or had been employed. This finding should be compared with data
from India, where the vast majority of surrogate mothers are from households
with incomes below the poverty line (Pande 2010). The prospective surrogates
we interviewed had regular access to the internet, which poorer Thai women
do not.
We must identify relevant social and cultural motivations other than "economic" concerns to fully understand why women enter into surrogacy
arrangements. In this regard, a tentative conclusion that can be drawn from
our results is that the cultural norm determining a woman's social role as
wife, mother, and daughter has a significant effect on a woman's decision to
become a surrogate mother. Notably, wanting to help their parents was often
mentioned by our participants as a reason for becoming a surrogate, and this
harkens back to the cultural significance of the role of women in the Cognatic
kinship system in Thai society. The filial duty, conceived as repayment of a
debt incurred by being born and nourished, is imposed on children of both
sexes, but daughters are expected to take a more active role in caring for ageing
parents than are sons. This gender role is reinforced by a popular Buddhist
notion that a son can and should repay debt by becoming a monk, as offering
a son to Sangha is one of the most significant merit-making acts for parents
(Van Esterik 1982: 77; Keyes 1984: 227–30). Our interviewee's statements
suggested that surrogacy is often linked with this gender role of women as daughters. From a comparative perspective, the Indian surrogates described by
Pande and Vora, the Israeli surrogates described by Teman, and the American
surrogates described by Ragone did not mention a desire to help their parents
as a reason for becoming a surrogate as frequently as did the Thai surrogates
in our study. Another cultural factor that motivated a woman who had had
an abortion to become a surrogate was tan-bun (merit-making). One study
found that one-third of surrogate mothers had experienced abortion and this
led to the suggestion that reparation for having aborted a foetus may be an
explicit or implicit motivation for becoming a surrogate mother. This observation
implicates surrogacy as a gender issue across borders.
Notably, the social form and process of "message board surrogacy" allows
room for a woman to derive various benefits from the surrogacy experience.
They can choose for whom they provide gestational services and with whom
they actively negotiate the arrangement rather than passively accept an
intended parent and a fixed price set by a third party. This is supported
by Thai Civil and Commercial Codes that recognise the birth mother as the
legal mother and hold that any contract regarding surrogacy is not legally
enforceable. |