Contractual Transaction: How Renting a Uterus Makes the Human Body a Commodity in Nepal

Authors

  • Madhusudan Subedi Patan Academy of Health Sciences, Nepal

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3126/dsaj.v9i0.14020

Keywords:

Surrogacy, surrogacy tourism, commodity surrogacy legislation, body as a commodity, parenthood and the market, Nepal

Abstract

The issue of surrogate motherhood has started public debates in Nepal. With surrogacy a child becomes the object of a legal transaction, while the surrogate mother is used, in effect as an incubator, and the hospital declares commissioned parents’ name of a newborn child. The poor women in low-income countries have been used as means to compensate for the reproductive deficiencies of high-income infertile parents. Do purchasing cheaper services, receiving surrogates easier, and having the possibility of gender selection, all in the poor countries, support ‘surrogacy tourism’ or is it a kind of exploitative relationship? Until today, Nepal’s laws do not have any specific provision to deal with surrogacy and, therefore, it is urgent to address the challenges with commercial surrogacy and establish a precise legal policy.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.
Abstract
1695
PDF
2116

Author Biography

Madhusudan Subedi, Patan Academy of Health Sciences, Nepal

Subedi, Madhusudan is Professor of Social Medicine in Patan Academy of Health Sciences. Subedi is affiliated to the Central Department of Sociology and Anthropology since 1996, and a founding faculty of MPhil Program in Sociology (2012), Tribhuvan University. He has authored a book ‘Medical Anthropology of Nepal (2001)’, co-authored ‘Role of Natural Products in Resource Management, Poverty Alleviation and Good Governance: A Case Study of Jatamasi and Wintergreen Value Chains in Nepal (2006)’, 'The State of Sociology and Anthropology: Teaching and Research in Nepal (2014)', and has published more than 30 academic articles in wide-ranging journals.

Downloads

Published

2015-12-07

How to Cite

Subedi, M. (2015). Contractual Transaction: How Renting a Uterus Makes the Human Body a Commodity in Nepal. Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, 9, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.3126/dsaj.v9i0.14020

Issue

Section

Articles