Paper short abstract:

With study among Swedish commissioning parents and people in Assam, India, the paper aims to provide a multifaceted and transnational perspective on surrogacy. Conflicting perspectives on legal and socio-cultural issues on surrogacy as a reproduction method will be discussed in this research paper.

Paper long abstract:

Surrogacy is unregulated in Sweden and couples have then used transnational surrogacy in some specific countries e.g. India and the U.S. With legal issues and different competing discourses on surrogacy relating to exploitation and empowerment of poor women being surrogate mothers, how is surrogacy seen as an option to parenthood? Indian women are used as surrogate mothers extensively. Childlessness is highly stigmatized in India, but is surrogacy an option to parenthood for Indians themselves? The chosen study area in India is Assam, it being a fairly new place for surrogacy arrangements in India. This study aims to provide a multifaceted and transnational perspective on the phenomenon that has created many ethical, legal and social dilemmas. Interviews were conducted with Swedish commissioning parents to investigate regarding their experiences of the process of becoming legal parents and their perception regarding the present discourses on surrogacy. Interviews and focus groups discussions were conducted in Assam to analyse the perceptions on surrogacy as an option to childlessness. The study reveals that conflicting perspectives on legal, cultural and social issues complicate surrogacy as assisted reproductive method in both Sweden and India. Among the Swedish commissioning parents the use of surrogacy was ambiguous depending on the surrogate mother's situation, and the road to parenthood was difficult and unpredictable. In Assam, surrogacy was not seen as an option for many because of the socio-cultural factors. Few had real knowledge about this method and even fewer considered it an affordable choice for reproduction.