Mapping Young Indians' Views Regarding the Acceptability of Surrogate Motherhood: A Pilot Survey

The objective was to map young Indians' views regarding the acceptability of surrogacy, and to delineate the circumstances under which surrogacy is considered as especially problematic. In India, the number of fertility clinics currently operating in the whole country is estimated at over 3,000, making India the international leader in surrogacy. Very recently, however, surrogacy has become controversial. Participants (N = 430) were presented with scenarios depicting the circumstances in which a couple has contracted with a surrogate mother, and they were asked to indicate the extent to which such a contract may pose a moral problem. The scenarios involved four factors: the type of surrogacy (traditional or gestational), the mother's level of autonomy, the family context, and whether surrogacy was of the commercial or the altruistic kind. Four different personal positions were found: a group for which (a) surrogacy always posed a moral problem (22%), (b) traditional surrogacy but not gestational surrogacy always posed a moral problem (15%), (c) surrogacy did not pose a problem each time the husband agrees with the procedure (40%), and (d) a group that chose not to express any position (23%). Although surrogacy is legal and big business, young people's opinion seems to be divided on this issue. Even those who consider that surrogacy is not within itself an unacceptable procedure disagree regarding the conditions of its acceptability. This complex set of diverging attitudes, if replicated on large, representative samples, may explain the current government wavering on this issue and its recent decision that surrogacy services are forbidden for foreigners.