Paper short abstract:

This paper is an ethnographic study of former gestational surrogates (United States) who create their own surrogacy agencies. These women speak of how their own experiences have shaped their implementation of "best practices" regarding intending parent and surrogate relationships in their agencies.

Paper long abstract:

Many ethnographies offer descriptions and analyses of the experiences of gestational surrogacy of intending parents and/or of gestational surrogates (Ragoné 1994, Thompson 2005, Teman 2010, Bharadwaj 2012 & 2016, Dasgupta & Dasgupta 2014, Pande 2014, Rudrappa 2015, Deomampo 2016, among others) and of their mutual expectations regarding the relationship that is, or is not, forged through this practice. Many of these ethnographies also deal with the role of clinics or agencies (depending on how surrogacy is managed in different countries), and the professionals who work in them, in shaping or blocking the relationships between intending parents and gestational surrogate. This paper, based on interview material from ethnographic fieldwork in the framework of a group of research projects, will discuss the interesting case of former gestational surrogates in the United States who have later created their own surrogacy agencies. Apart from the perception of an economic opportunity through their own participation in gestational surrogacy, these women express their intention to do it "better" in many ways. They speak about what they were happy or unhappy with in their own experiences as gestational surrogates and explain how they have created better conditions for gestational surrogates in their agencies and of how they pair intending parents and gestational surrogates who have similar expectations of relationships and conceptions regarding this practice. This research will address not only the gestational surrogates' own experiences, but their implementation what they consider to be "best practices" regarding intending parent and surrogate relationships in the agencies they create.