Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses various forms of reproductive disruptions causing pregnancy loss during gestational surrogacy in India. It underlines how absolute belief in the supremacy of medical technology enables the actors to envisage high hopes of success; without apprehending any aberrations.

Paper long abstract:

This paper aims to discuss the various forms of reproductive disruptions causing pregnancy loss during gestational surrogacy and its impact upon the key actors. Not all In vitro fertilisations (IVFs) performed during a surrogacy arrangement results in success, as failures in the form of miscarriage, foetal reduction or still birth often brings an end to the much desired pregnancies. Therefore while complete miscarriages and loss of foetal heartbeat during surrogacy leads to a pregnancy loss for the surrogate mother and the intended parents, events of foetal reductions (wherein triplets or twins are reduced to twins or singletons) also makes the surrogate mother and occasionally the intended parents undergo an experience of loss of similar kind. Based on an ethnography conducted in fertility clinics of Delhi and Kolkata, I would like to argue that such events of disruptions to the surrogate pregnancy puts an end to the hopes and imaginations surrounding a newly conceived foetal entity. Further any form of miscarriage being highly stigmatised and foetal reductions being assigned to the best interest of the surviving foetus/es or the intended parents, the rights of the surrogates to medical care or counselling are left unrecognized. By exploring the experiences of loss and the narratives of disruptions surrounding such events, this paper would attempt to underline how absolute belief in the supremacy of medical technology and medical professionals enables the actors in surrogacy to envisage high hopes of success; to the extent that they fail to anticipate or accommodate any aberrations.