Topic > Discrimination in Reproductive Surrogacy - 3015

Introduction“Surrogacy refers to an arrangement whereby a woman agrees to become pregnant for the purpose of gestating and giving birth to a child for others to raise or implant fertilized egg and someone else's sperm ( Pande, 2009, p.143)”. Commercial surrogacy is legalized in India and has become a hot spot for those who are unable to conceive their child. A recent article on reproductive surrogacy states that "high-caste, light-skinned women are paid $1,600 more for their services" than darker-skinned Indian women, even if the child does not share any genetic material of the surrogate mother ( Asian News, 2012). This is very intriguing because women's skin color has nothing to do with pregnancy, yet light-skinned women get paid more for the same services. This injustice makes no moral sense. Discrimination among dark-skinned people has a long history but is barely mentioned in the scientific literature on reproductive surrogacy tourism, so this gap in the literature is an important issue to address. In this article, I will discuss why skin color discrimination among Indian surrogate mothers occurs, the historical view on discrimination, the ethical dimensions, and how to address this issue to help protect women from discrimination and inequality. Background Historically, women have used others to have children when they could not conceive, but being infertile was not as common as it is today. The surrogate mother would be the genetic mother because the technology of the past was not as advanced as modern technology. Infertile parents today have so many reproductive procedures to choose from, but surrogacy is common when they are unable to conceive their child (Fixmer-Oraiz, 2013... half of the paper... to address this issue is crucial in per help protect women from discrimination and injustice. Given all these points, more specific scientific research on the matter is needed because there seems to be a lack of information. This is definitely an issue that needs to be explored more further research on the reasons why would prospective parents pay more for a light-skinned surrogate mother when the surrogate mother has no genetic relationship to the child This question makes no sense from a moral perspective but is fascinating to explore. The question of skin color Discrimination appears to be a global challenge; therefore, it would be logical to conduct multifaceted research involving scholars from different backgrounds to combat this problem. Hopefully, further research will lead surrogacy tourism to a more equitable, just and non-discriminatory industry.