Global flows of fertility

“ You might think that new
fertility technologies would remove the
burden of reproductive labour from
women, or at the very least, challenge
societal norms.”
The paradox of
surrogacy
Pande’s first book,
Wombs in Labor:
Transnational Commercial
Surrogacy in India, was
the result of a decade of
ethnographic research at
a fertility clinic in western India.
“After spending so much time
with the women at this clinic, I came
to realise that my perspective was
very Eurocentric. In the book, I tried
to shift the focus away from the ethics
and morality of the subject towards an
understanding of this as a new form
of reproductive labour market.”
Wombs in Labor explored the different
forms this market takes, from ideas
of surrogacy as ‘God’s work’ to a
conception of it as ‘dirty work’. This
is what Pande terms the paradox
of surrogacy.
“Often it is the first time that the
women involved in this labour market
are ever celebrated, praised or
rewarded for their fertility. An irony in
an anti-natal state like India where
women are told not to have babies or
where having many babies is linked
to poverty,” says Pande.
The book goes on to describe the
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convenient way that the bodies of these
women are celebrated when they’re
serving others, but regulated when they
do the same thing through their own
agency – through punitive measures,
such as long-term forced birth control –
as a form of neo-eugenics.
Race, reproduction
and inequality
In her current research, Pande has
zoomed out from surrogacy to look
at the many interwoven processes
that make up flows of fertility around
the world.
“You might think that new fertility
technologies would remove the burden
of reproductive labour from women,
or at the very least, challenge societal
norms. But in fact, my recent research
shows that the global fertility industry
reaffirms pre-existing inequalities.”
These inequalities are reproduced in
several ways, according to Pande.
On an individual level,
most of the surrogates and
egg providers are women
from poorer countries in
the global south, who bear
children for richer couples
hailing from the global
north. Pande is careful to
describe these women as
active participants in this
process but admits that
they are also vulnerable
to exploitation.
On a national scale,
she likens the industry to
other factory industries
that move from one
country to another as the
legislation to regulate the
industry is passed in each
successive place.
There is also the
question of how race and
reproduction intersect.
“In my second book,
I look at the reaffirmation
of the desirability of
whiteness and the reasons that people
seek out egg providers of a specific
race,” says Pande. In many cases this
happens when a woman who is part of
a couple feels insecure that she is not
providing her own genetic material
and therefore wants as close a match
as possible physically. The other
instance in which prospective parents
request an egg provider of a specific
race is when they are intent on ‘racial
improvement’.
“This is a phenomenon seen often
among Chinese and Israeli clients.
The prospective parents are looking
for white mixed-race babies, for a
variety of reasons, and the clinics are
ready to provide them this strategic
choice,” explains Pande.
This research is part of a large
initiative funded by the South
African National Research Foundation,
titled Global fertility flows, based in the
UCT Department of Sociology.
PHOTOGRAPH: MARIA LINDSEY/PEXELS
Your sperm will be
used to fertilise this egg.
“The embryo will be
flown to Laos where it will
be inserted into a woman
from Mexico, Cambodia
or Thailand. The woman
will live in a dormitory
next to the fertility clinic
for the duration of the
pregnancy. When she
gives birth, you will take
the child and return to
your home country.”
This, says Pande, is
one global fertility flow –
the subject of her current
research on the industry.

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