A study of the hidden costs involved in commercial surrogacy arrangements

Abstract

The current paper starts out by describing the emotional construct of childbirth and the importance of biological ownership of a progeny. It develops arguments both in favor and against the notion of sharing genetic material with a child as being a desirable trait in the society and as well as the repercussions of the same. It attempts to bring out the consideration that law provides such couples and validates that with the near fundamental law of allowing rational beings to procreate and raise families. Further the argument goes on to establish a case for surrogacy in the modern society, by chalking out both commercial as well as altruistic surrogacy. The paper attempts to bring the demerits of the altruism underlined in such contracts by pointing out cases of blatant exploitation in purely altruistic contracts and then goes on to understand the notion of the virtuousness ascribed to such underpinnings. The text then develops a construct describing the methodology of financial remuneration and the considerations thereof and brings out the inherent contrast in the broadcasted message in the popular discourse and the methodology of structuring such contracts, thus finalizing on an opinion that Surrogacy contracts are by nature exploitative, by not replenishing the utility lost by the surrogate and only attempting to give a notional reward for producing a product deemed acceptable by the parents. The model then goes ahead and develops the case even further by underlining the hidden costs in surrogacy and the manner in which they present themselves unto the surrogate. The text provides validation for the fact that surrogates aren’t in fact aware of the utility payoff, and make these decisions in a system of information asymmetry which is bound to end being exploitative for the surrogate. The paper finally presents a mathematical model to validate the same and also tries to develop a game theoretic argument underlining the fact that at the end of a commercial contract the clinic is the sure winner and then are the intended parents and the surrogate is the least benefitted party in the contract, both by virtue of investing the most prior to the initiation of any payoffs and by virtue of shielding the maximum amount of risk amongst all the parties. The paper underlines the need for modification in the existing legal framework to ensure such exploitation doesn’t become a rampant practice throughout the country and to ensure that parties that are making decisions out of anxiety and in a system of imperfect information are made aware of the consequences beforehand, in the diction most amenable to their present conditions.