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Broken Bonds: Surrogate Mothers Speak Out
Thousands of people obtain babies through surrogacy arrangements. The general public is compassionate to their plight and supportive of their ‘right’ to a baby. But who are the nameless women who give birth to these babies? In this book, strong and courageous women from the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia, and Russia share their stories of becoming ‘surrogate’ mothers only to be deceived by ‘baby buyers’ and lawyers. This book challenges Big Fertility and its minions: women are not ovens or suitcases, babies are not products.
152 pages, Paperback
First published April 2, 2019
1 person is currently reading
159 people want to read
About the author
Renate Klein
37 books19 followersRenate Klein was born in Zurich, Switzerland and has degrees from universities of Zurich, London and the University of California (Berkeley). She is known internationally for her work on reproductive technologies and information technologies. She has spoken to parliamentary committees and on TV, radio and print media about ethical issues in reproductive medicines. Her books include the international bestseller
Test Tube Women
(1984, co-editor). Her other books include:
Theories of Women's Studies
(1983, co-editor with Gloria Bowles);
Man Made Women
(1986, co-author);
The Exploitation of a Desire
(1989, Deakin University Press); Infertility (1989);
Radical Voices
(1990, co-editor with Debbie Steinberg);
Angels of Power
(1991);
RU 486: Misconceptions, Myth and Morals (1991, co-author); Australia for Women: Travel and Culture (1994, co-editor with Susan Hawthorne). She is co-editor with Diane Bell of Radically Speaking: Feminism Reclaimed (1996) and with Susan Hawthorne of CyberFeminism (1999).
Renate Klein admits that the joys of dog companionship came to her after establishing herself as a writer and academic. With Jan Fook, she co-edited A Girl's Best Friend: The Meaning of Dogs in Women's Lives (2002), with Jan Fook and Susan Hawthorne Cat Tales: The Meaning of Cats in Women's Lives (2003) and HorseDreams: The Meaning of Horses in Women's Lives (2004).
She has been Associate Professor of Women's Studies at Deakin University, Melbourne. She says of herself that she still cares passionately about social justice for women, particularly in the area of reproductive and cyber technologies, but her dog, River, made her laugh, cry and experience pure joie de vivre.
RU 486: Misconceptions, Myth and Morals (1991, co-author); Australia for Women: Travel and Culture (1994, co-editor with Susan Hawthorne). She is co-editor with Diane Bell of Radically Speaking: Feminism Reclaimed (1996) and with Susan Hawthorne of CyberFeminism (1999).
Renate Klein admits that the joys of dog companionship came to her after establishing herself as a writer and academic. With Jan Fook, she co-edited A Girl's Best Friend: The Meaning of Dogs in Women's Lives (2002), with Jan Fook and Susan Hawthorne Cat Tales: The Meaning of Cats in Women's Lives (2003) and HorseDreams: The Meaning of Horses in Women's Lives (2004).
She has been Associate Professor of Women's Studies at Deakin University, Melbourne. She says of herself that she still cares passionately about social justice for women, particularly in the area of reproductive and cyber technologies, but her dog, River, made her laugh, cry and experience pure joie de vivre.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 15, 2019
Must-read on surrogacy, I haven’t read anything else on the topic so easily digestible and affecting. The introduction explains how surrogacy is exploitive and deeply damaging in a clear and concise way (Renate Klein’s other book Surrogacy: A Human Rights Violation provides a more in-depth look at the technical details, risks, and ethics of the current fertility industry, and Raymond’s Women As Wombs does the same from an earlier perspective if you want more along the lines of the intro). The rest of the book is the personal stories of egg donors and gestational surrogates from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, India, Romania, Hungary, Georgia, and Russia. Women are being forced into contractually mandated abortions of fetuses with genetic abnormalities, having to release children they birthed into the sole custody of “intended parents” who stalked them, sabotaged their vehicles, and called them racial slurs throughout the pregnancy, offering to perform “altruistic surrogacy” for a family member who subsequently harassed them throughout the pregnancy then cut all family ties to them and refused to allow contact with the child birthed, being scammed into violating international law, and more. Deeply disturbing and definitely the best place to start if this topic is new to you.
August 1, 2019
I would give this 0 stars if I could. Ill informed and very biased book. Author should have done some fact checking before she wrote this fairytale. So many lies and untruths told.
August 24, 2019
Currently exploring the option of surrogacy in Australia but thought I would educate myself on past experiences first. This story of ‘Odette’ is extremely conflicting in contrast with the court documents I have read. Makes me question everything else written in this book. The author obviously is an extremist trying not to let facts get in the way of a good ‘story’. Very disappointing
http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/vi...
http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/vi...
August 13, 2020
This book is primarily a collection of seventeen stories written by surrogate mothers. The introduction to the stories, written by the three editors, clearly makes the point that they are opposed to surrogacy.
Page after page, I was constantly surprised and out loud making sounds of disgust. This book has many examples of human beings that are despicable and quite frankly inhumane. The stories are filled with lies, manipulation, bribery, and some (many, perhaps?) being treated as indentured slaves. I nearly cried twice while reading this book. It is a quick read, but its really not a quick read, because I couldn’t just sit down with this and go. I needed to step away several times.
Page after page, I was constantly surprised and out loud making sounds of disgust. This book has many examples of human beings that are despicable and quite frankly inhumane. The stories are filled with lies, manipulation, bribery, and some (many, perhaps?) being treated as indentured slaves. I nearly cried twice while reading this book. It is a quick read, but its really not a quick read, because I couldn’t just sit down with this and go. I needed to step away several times.
March 6, 2021
A fascinating book telling the stories of women who were exploited through the practice of surrogacy. I have followed Jennifer Lahl for a few years, and her work is always very moving and informative. It is astonishing to me how many want to silence the voices of those that had negative experiences with third party reproduction, and how visceral and cruel the reactions are to anyone that would challenge intended parents' ability to use another woman's body. Even if you support the practice of surrogacy, this book is worth a read, as the stories of former surrogates are rarely shared truthfully by Big Fertility
May 8, 2022
An illuminating, and heart-breaking read which allows us to see the different nuanced perceptions of the experiences of women either as egg donors or mothers carrying and birthing "contract" babies, and learn of the physical, psychological and social harms the exploitative practise of "surrogacy" causes. This collection also includes a story from the partner of a woman who was pregnant for another couple, broadening our insights yet again. I think the quote by Kajsa Ekis Ekman at the beginning of the book says it all: "[Surrogacy] is not only a desire to raise a child, but also a demand that the mother be absent..." (quote from 'Being and Being Bought').
March 16, 2019
Broken Bonds addresses the darker side of surrogacy by doing what Spinifex press do best giving voice to women’s lived experiences globally.
This book is a short anthology that squarely places surrogacy as a bleak culture of buying and selling females and babies by the wealthy. Children are not consumable goods nor are women.
This book is a short anthology that squarely places surrogacy as a bleak culture of buying and selling females and babies by the wealthy. Children are not consumable goods nor are women.
October 6, 2020
Fantastic book that reveals the exploitative nature of surrogacy that so many don't, or won't, talk about.
April 22, 2023
This book presents a series of case studies detailing what happens when egg donation and surrogacy go wrong. The book makes a strong case that we do not know enough medically about the procedures involved to give informed consent and that even if we did, due to the wealth disparities it is impossible to create a system that is not exploitive.
Arguments in this book include:
1. The difficulty surrogate mothers face with becoming emotionally attached. Many enter the contract with the expectation that they will continue to have contact or receive updates about the child they grew in their bodies for 9 months but are left with little recourse after the intended parents receive the child if the intended parents change their minds.
2. Even if the surrogate mother does not become attached, as a fetus grows the entirety of their world is the woman they are growing in. When babies are born they prefer their mother's smell, voice, and to look at their mother. There is no way a baby can intellectually understand that the person they are growing in is not the person they are going to go home with and that the loss of this bond is inherently traumatic.
3. It is hard to impossible to create a system for surrogacy that is not exploitive. For instance, people who hire surrogates have money and surrogate mothers need money. People who hire surrogates have to pay for a lawyer to represent the surrogate however, since the people who are hiring are also the one paying the lawyer, ultimately the lawyer is loyal to the one writing the checks, leaving a surrogate mother in the lurch if those they entered the contract with do not fulfill that contract. This leaves surrogate mothers vulnerable to significant abuse and exploitation.
4. Even in situations where a surrogate mother enters into a contract to help a friend or family member, these relationship have the potential to turn sour and exploitive.
5. The surrogate mother is the person who is pregnant and who is bonding with the child growing within her. Intended parents can be rather detached and have specific expectations about what they want from a pregnancy, for instance wanting twins, one boy and one girl. And while reproductive technology provides the illusion that people can custom order the pregnancy they want, the reality is nature has the ultimate say and that embryos will not necessarily attach or embryos can split after implantation. This can result in a situation where the intended parents wants to terminate a pregnancy that the surrogate mother does not want to terminate, thus violating the surrogate mother's bodily autonomy.
The case studies in this book are shocking and alarming. It is horrible to desire to have a child and be unable to conceive and families in this position deserve compassion and empathy. At the same time this books makes a strong argument that surrogacy is not a viable way to help these families due to the harms intrinsic in the process.
Arguments in this book include:
1. The difficulty surrogate mothers face with becoming emotionally attached. Many enter the contract with the expectation that they will continue to have contact or receive updates about the child they grew in their bodies for 9 months but are left with little recourse after the intended parents receive the child if the intended parents change their minds.
2. Even if the surrogate mother does not become attached, as a fetus grows the entirety of their world is the woman they are growing in. When babies are born they prefer their mother's smell, voice, and to look at their mother. There is no way a baby can intellectually understand that the person they are growing in is not the person they are going to go home with and that the loss of this bond is inherently traumatic.
3. It is hard to impossible to create a system for surrogacy that is not exploitive. For instance, people who hire surrogates have money and surrogate mothers need money. People who hire surrogates have to pay for a lawyer to represent the surrogate however, since the people who are hiring are also the one paying the lawyer, ultimately the lawyer is loyal to the one writing the checks, leaving a surrogate mother in the lurch if those they entered the contract with do not fulfill that contract. This leaves surrogate mothers vulnerable to significant abuse and exploitation.
4. Even in situations where a surrogate mother enters into a contract to help a friend or family member, these relationship have the potential to turn sour and exploitive.
5. The surrogate mother is the person who is pregnant and who is bonding with the child growing within her. Intended parents can be rather detached and have specific expectations about what they want from a pregnancy, for instance wanting twins, one boy and one girl. And while reproductive technology provides the illusion that people can custom order the pregnancy they want, the reality is nature has the ultimate say and that embryos will not necessarily attach or embryos can split after implantation. This can result in a situation where the intended parents wants to terminate a pregnancy that the surrogate mother does not want to terminate, thus violating the surrogate mother's bodily autonomy.
The case studies in this book are shocking and alarming. It is horrible to desire to have a child and be unable to conceive and families in this position deserve compassion and empathy. At the same time this books makes a strong argument that surrogacy is not a viable way to help these families due to the harms intrinsic in the process.
January 3, 2025
Around 17 'surrogates' (only 1 is a partner of a woman who was harmed) stories are told.
From Indian women being paid the price of a meal out monthly to carry a whole child, to American women with contracts realising their 'employers' view them as subhuman whether through sexism or the other eugenical intersections involved in surrogacy
This is not a 'both sides book' this is an opinionated introduction and then women speaking up
From Indian women being paid the price of a meal out monthly to carry a whole child, to American women with contracts realising their 'employers' view them as subhuman whether through sexism or the other eugenical intersections involved in surrogacy
This is not a 'both sides book' this is an opinionated introduction and then women speaking up
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews