Objective
Surrogacy is a (new) way to conceive children, which is currently becoming a medical, political, and social issue in a context of growing globalization and reproductive medicalization. India has become an international leader for surrogacy and one of the main destinations for cross-border fertility care for Europeans.
Surrogacy sheds light on new social, economic, demographic and medical issues at the national and international levels. It raises many questions in epidemiology and public health (why do Europeans use surrogacy instead of adoption for example? why and how do they use surrogacy in India?), demography (who are the intended parents and where do they come from? who are the Indian surrogate mothers?), sociology (what are the life-histories of intended parents and surrogate mothers? what leads them to surrogacy? what sense do they give to this practice?) and gender studies (what is its impact on women’s conditions, on gender construction and on gender relationships? In a context of poverty, what justifies for Indian women to “rent their wombs”?).
Through a mixed approach of qualitative and quantitative analysis, the project will study micro-realities of surrogacy in Mumbai among surrogate protagonists and will produce new empirical data. Based on training-through-research, the Marie Curie grant will assert my skills in three identified areas: generating knowledge on a new cultural background, strengthening my competencies in the field of survey methodology and enhancing my coverage of reproductive health issues by tackling the specific question of surrogacy.
While surrogacy is becoming in Europe a burning issue for public health policies, few studies have addressed this new phenomenon, especially in developing countries. Understanding this practice both in terms of the offer side and of the demand side is timely in order to throw light on current debates.
Fields of science
Call for proposal
FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IOF
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
MC-IOF - International Outgoing Fellowships (IOF)Coordinator
93322 Aubervilliers Cedex
France