

However, by removing a surrogate’s right to be compensated, she is in fact, exploited. Women are socialized in Western civilization to be inherently altruistic, placing the needs of others before their own. When confronted with the potential to be a surrogate for a family member, a woman may feel greater obligation to agree, or feel greater guilt when denying the request. In other words, women who feel familial pressure to, quite literally, deliver a child, can be subjugated and will likely experience feelings of regret or dismay at having to surrender a child at the behest of the family. The expectation is also heightened within non-Western people groups, and is specifically pronounced within the South Asian culture.  It may not seem important to understand the particulars of a South Asian family group, but when cultures and families and ethnic groups relocate to the Western world, they do not simply abandon all of their traditions and norms. In fact, knowing that these attitudes exist even within South Asian families in Western countries is important in identifying women at risk of this type of exploitation.


	Even in commercial surrogacy, the emphasis is often placed upon the desire to assist an infertile couple achieve parenthood, rather than using the idea of money as a motivating factor. Any surrogacy is altruistic; compensation simply enables the woman to be an active and considered partner in the contract. 


	In extra familial surrogacy, an economic case is often raised against the practice. Words like “supply and demand” and “market” and “saleable” and “product” are thrown about in an effort to commodify the practice of surrogacy. Altruism is thrown out the proverbial window, and opponents force participants to justify compensating a woman for what they call “reproductive prostitution.” However, an important distinction can be made between prostitution and surrogacy: the prostitute sells sex; the surrogate mother sells reproduction.  The prostitute’s product is pleasure, which is fleeting and intangible. The surrogate’s product is motherhood, which is also intangible. However, motherhood relies upon the presence of a child, which is absolutely more concrete.  By allowing reasonable compensation for any and all types of surrogate arrangements, the surrogate is empowered and may feel somewhat justified beyond her own altruism. 


	While it is impossible to completely explain the need for surrogacy beyond maternal instinct or cultural indoctrination, its implications and its consequences, it is interesting to note that history has referenced the practice as far back as the Old Testament. The story of Sarai and Abraham is thousands of years old, and yet it resonates deeply in twenty-first century America. This particular couple’s faith in each other and in God was tested when prophesy revealed to Abraham years before by God, seemed doomed to failure. They were both elderly and had borne no children of their own, despite God’s promise to Abraham that he should “look toward the heavens and count the stars” to measure his promised descendants. 