Dr.Pinki Arora
Assistant Professor
Central University of Harayana
Mahendragarh
Abstract:
Surrogacy is not a new
term today. Even illiterates are aware of the benefits it provides. For some
it’s a means of propagating their family lineage and for some a handsome means
of employment. Humans have now started probing Nature for exploitation. Till now
it were resources that man experimented but now human himself is a laboratory.
Talking of surrogacy, Rita Garg has shown in her novel An Abbreviated Child the
harmful effect of Surrogacy on society. As Marx acclaimed over exploitation and
consumption has been catastrophic to humanity since generations. I have tried
to explain the harmful effects of surrogacy in my paper.
Keywords:
Surrogacy, consciousness, inevitable,
exploitation, Nature, mother, dialectical materialism, superstructure,
commercialization, rented womb, humanity, production
Becoming a mother and
motherhood is a desirous blessing for every living creature. God blessed the
female to carry this pain beautifully and joyfully. The word ‘MOTHER’ itself signifies
generator of a new life, be that a human or non-human. Mother NATURE needs no
description. The whole universe is a product of such rejuvenation and the
process is incessant. Infertility in couples has been a social stigma
compelling the male to remarry till he is capable of running his Vansh.
“Propagation is the
ultimate purpose of any species, therefore, birth of an offspring is always
dependent on the factors that lead to high chances of survival of the
offspring. For example, birds migrate thousands of kilometers to find out
suitable place where environment can support the high chances of survival of
their offsprings.” (Sharma, web)
Natural born and nature
born alike sublimate surroundings. Myth, literature, medicalscience and ages
evince the unquestioned plethora of the above so far.William Wordsworth
projects nature Mother; Hindu and Christian myth delineate nature born
Shakuntala, Sita, Karna or Christ. They enact unprecedented worth worshipping
roles.Till now their names enjoy overflowing respect, divinity and
faith.Shakuntala, the nature born did what a natural born might not have
achieved.Sita's purity and divinity are exemplary. Lord Christ gave up his life
for the cause of mankind.He continued on the path full of thorns but
fought.Mahabharata has hundred nature born brothers, Kauravas. Their role in
the epic highlights the virtues by serving as a foil to vices.
Shakuntala has a fairy
mother from heavens; Sita emerges out of mother earth; Karna is born of the
sweat of the Sun and Virgin Mary too gives birth to Lord Christ only through
the power of God.The spiritualistic deeds of these natural born bring salvation
to mankind.Replete with the sagacity of purity, Nature Mother and the Nature
born extend their role to that spacious surface which is not tethered, rather
spreads goodness boundlessly.
Apparently, there are
five categories of mothers. Above all, natural mother or mother; then the step
mother; next comes Panna Dhaya or the
feeding nurse; besides there is the category of foster mother; and, last but
not the least is the medically created surrogate
mother.In An Abbreviated Child, the novelist projects the role of four
categories of mother and motherhood.The question raised in the novel is about
surrogacy.
Can we really
categorize mothers? Mothers have been God incarnated since ancient times.
History is full of such examples when adopted sons and daughters have been
nurtured better than the real ones. A mother never demarcates, she is an
embodiment of love and affection. May be Yashodra, Kunti, Devaki and many
others who found themselves blessed with motherhood. Only rearing a child in
the womb doesn’t complete motherhood, without nurturing motherhood stands
meaningless. In that way a mother is a nursery where reproduction is practiced
and as the sapling is ready her work is over. What about inculcating virtues
and converting the offspring to a competent strong sturdy worthy creature.
Nowhere does the
novelist show any inclination of the approval of this medical advancement.It is
not at all discernible.The condemning of the surrogacy is made through
comparison with an anecdote from Mahabharata, an epic.According to the
mythological and religious belief, Subhadra, wife of Arjuna, is from a royal
family.Add legend after belief. This legend relates to the time when Abhimanyu
has to come to the world.This is a family of Kshtriyas who have martial art in
Genes. One day, Subhadra was listening about the Chakravyuha.How a warrior
enters it and after the destruction of enemy forces how carefully he returns
alive fromChakravyuha. As luck would
have it, he missed the later part of the skill connected to the exit because she
went to sleep.The novelist questions," is Abhimanyu's story a wasteful
effort?
The unborn baby is also nourished on the
learning aspect. He picked the martial art in the womb of the royal
mother."(Garg, 8)
The pertinence of the
question above lies in the truth that the theory of genes is eternal and much
of medical science is based on the same. Besides training, inculcation and
environment, a lot depends on medical and biological inheritance; an object not
to be gained in the situation of surrogacy. Not a royal or moneyed; educated
and intelligent person would be a professional surrogate mother.This isa
practice that boomerangs in India as overpopulation is already a murderous
weapon. The novelist describes that orphan are littered at unwanted places.An
ironical demerit of surrogacy is based on:
"A royal mother
replaced by a poverty-stricken woman -- never fed enough -- never enjoyed
riches of life ... ... the never never nest of the baby."
This metaphysical
expression of "never never nest" for the womb of a surrogate mother
implies the embryo inheriting "illiteracy, shrewdness, cunningness to
develop an unscrupulous brain."The 'viability' (8) of a borrowed womb is a
denial of much that is needful for the embryo and afterwards.
Mythically and on the
basis of gene theory, surrogacy jeopardizes the abilities of a new born which
persist the whole life.The novelist questions lack of knowledge, lack of
innocence of a person belonging to poor surroundings. In the later part of the
text, another hurdle found is that the medical problems of the child get
heightened.As a result of surrogacy.Medical science, after arguments and
researches has an established finding that genetic diseases are inculcated by
an embryo. In a normal case, the baby would have the possibility of developing
genetic problems of the two-- mother and father.In the situation of surrogacy,
they run the risk of catching diseases running into the genes of the three -
mother father and the surrogate professional woman.
Surrogacy was a medical
technique developed basically for drought animals so as to produce new
varieties of cattle and hooved animals. But humans are born to make benefits of
Nature and employed this art to mankind without considering the dark side of it.
Can’t we say Surrogacy denotes “RENTED WOMB”. Wombs are available in market as
soil easily available to generate new species.
Surrogacy is largely on
account of poverty. Its lucre that attracts a woman to offer her services as a
surrogate worker. Surrogacy is not easy in itself. Rather the woman undergoes
many medical challenges and her professional attitude is normal from that
aspect.Fixed amount is paid but they demand in between also and get paid.The
term used for this is "three dimensional phase of diseases."(7)
Another ironical aspect
is that in many communities, horoscopes are matched at the time of marriage
fixing. This is from the angle of better children in future. With surrogacy
that is a misadventure,"But what will be the outcome of a borrowed and
paid for womb."(8)
The justified argument
about the racial betterment also crops up. Here the decision for child adoption
is better as the world is overpopulated and most of the races are much
incapacitated,"Better humans, well-nourished race and not an overburdened
and under-fed race."(8)
Last arguments in this
logical chain of ironical and dismal scenarios is that someone's child in some
other person's womb shall be weakened on one more aspect. Real sisters and
brothers share the joys and sorrows of each other all through their lives--if
some bad luck does not hamper. This commonality of umbilical cord shall be
missing in all kinship"(8) as surrogacy can't afford that bonding of one
cord as would have been in case of a common mother's case.
The language used in
the novel has precision. Much of thought provocation about one medical social
aspect is limited to less than two small size papers. The entire novel in
revised edition has less eighty pages but the issues raised are astounding.
Thus the fear remains that the tight language used lets the ideas slip from the
reader.The novel also has a comparative picture of the roles of mothers.There
is, first of all, Panna Dhaya who is sincere to the core.To save the Prince of
the State and the State, she sacrifices her son.Shakuntala, an exile, forced to
live in Ashrama brings up her son as a brave boy and does not infuse negative
ideas in his mind or of self. Her son, one day rules over Bharat.Similar is the
fate of Sita who brings up her twins in
ashrama with competence and suitable training.Karna is as brave as anyone else.
His foster parents are poor but with self training, he achieves the martial art
skill Karna is able known for his sacrifices.Above all, Radha, the central
figure, an orphan too, runs an orphanage.Since she herself faced miseries in
life so her attitude to the young orphans has devotion and encouraging
attitude.With all this, a crystal clear picture drawn of the current situation
of the country forces to think of the undesirable human population
increase.People associate child birth with various notions and out of that
breed like mosquitoes where the hut is too small to maintain any sanctity.
Carrying the thread of
Marxism that every base of the society creates its own superstructure. “The
production of ideas, concepts and consciousness is first of all directly
interwoven with the material intercourse of man, the language of real life.
Conceiving, thinking, the spiritual intercourse of men appear here as the
direct efflux of men’s material behavior… we do not proceed from what men say,
imagine, conceive nor from men as described, thought of, imagined, conceived,
in order to arrive at corporeal man; rather we proceed from the really active
man…. Consciousness does not determine life; life determines consciousness”. (the
German Ideology)
As the needs change, so
does the course of life. Medical science was invented for the betterment of
mankind. But humans could break it into a commercial art. We fin today many
examples where unmarried parenting is seen. Rich exploit the poor. Without
tying the nuptial knot surrogacy blesses them with children. Just a rented womb
is in question and money is there to answer the need. When human consciousness
has risen to generate their own children without taking the pains required for
the process, exploitation of Nature is inevitable?
Can we predict that
generations hence we shall rarely find natural mothers or shall only the poor
carry natural children? Attributing to dialectical materialism, men are constantly
under materialistic forces of production which in turn develop their social,
economic and political relations. Commercialization of Natural process shall
befall extreme calamities on mankind. Over exploitation of means of production
will create havoc and the fall of living standards.
Thus the day is not far
when humanity shall lose all its natural activities and creations. We will be
living in an artificial world among artificial human beings behaving real.
Works
Cited
Garg Rita, An Abbreviated Child, http://www.drritagarg.com/my-literary-work/an-abbreviated-child/
Marx
Karl, The German Ideology, New York,
Prometheus Books, 1998, Print
Sharma.
R. S, “Social, ethical, medical & legal aspects of surrogacy: an Indian
scenario”,
Indian
Journal of Medical Research. 2014 Nov; 140(Suppl) S13–S16.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4345743/