Shahrukh Khan and surrogacy in India
The Khans have shown how its more important to have your own child, than be bothered about ‘non-questions’ on ethics.
The writer is a freelance journalist and former Reuters Fellow at Oxford University (2012-2013). She tweets @NuraSharma
Indian film star Shahrukh Khan (SRK) refuses to discuss his son, AbRam, who was born through surrogacy some months ago. He has maintained that matters concerning surrogacy and sex determination are too serious to be spoken of lightly. His reticence is understandable given the controversy generated by the news of his newborn amid allegations of prenatal sex discernment.
However, for the commercial surrogacy industry in India, Shahrukh Khan need not do more. With his announcement that his third child was born of a surrogate mother, he probably did for the industry, what Barack Obama did for BlackBerry in 2009 by declaring his fondness for the smartphone. The US president’s free publicity of the handheld device is said to have been worth millions of dollars to its makers; SRK’s endorsement of surrogacy cannot be said to be insignificant either, keeping in mind his brand value as the undisputed badshah of Bollywood. And SRK is not alone. He is joined by other Khans, Aamir and Sohail (Salman Khan’s brother), both of whom had children through surrogacy in 2011. Together, they have given, wittingly or otherwise, celebrity endorsement to surrogacy that has seen a boom in recent times amidst ethical concerns and the Indian government’s efforts to put in place a regulation (Assisted Reproductive Technology Regulation Bill).
Whatever may have been the compulsions for SRK (47) and his wife Gauri (42), surrogacy is suddenly ‘cool’ and modern. Indian parents who do not have time to produce babies are looking for wombs on rent. Neither does it have to be a discreet affair, as it used to be in our conservative societies, till recently, despite India having been one of the top fertility tourism destinations of the world for some time now. Rather, it is something to flaunt, something that the rich and famous do. Bollywood’s first couple Shahrukh Khan and Gauri, already parents to Aryan (15) and Suhana (12), have done it. So, why shouldn’t anyone with money? Why take all the trouble when you can get a child with your eyes and hair colour delivered, just like pizza or naan-tadka; when there’s a woman to outsource the morning sickness, shapeless body and labour pains to? Now there is no reason to suppress the desire to have your own baby, the ‘ultimate happiness’ in the world. The Khans have shown how it is more important to have your own child, even if you already have children, than be bothered about ‘non-questions’ on ethics.
Critics of surrogacy are often rubbished as sad people who cannot tolerate the happiness of others, picking holes in something that is such a ‘win-win’ situation for all: the couple gets a baby and the surrogate mother earns a big pot of money? If the woman has made a profession of carrying other people’s babies, she has exercised her choice. She is not a runaway college student or a kid abducted on her way to school. But never have I met a girl who gushed, “Oh, I just cannot wait to become a surrogate mother!” The one picture that I have seen of surrogate mothers is an Associated Press photograph taken at a hospital in Gujarat, a state where unethical clinical trials of yet-to-be-launched drugs is no longer news. There are 12 women in the picture. The only face you can see is that of the doctor, wearing a yellow-and green-sari and a resplendent smile. The rest, surrogate mothers all, are wearing green hospital masks to hide their identities.
Celebrity endorsement has made it cool to overlook the distress of these women, armies of faceless mothers, who do not deserve sympathy because they have ‘exercised a choice’. These women ‘out there to make big money’ — let’s pretend we don’t know their real stories of hardship — are forced to keep their identities a secret to escape the scrutiny of society. That itself puts them in a vulnerable situation. But don’t think twice. The Khans have shown it is all right.
I wonder what they would have missed out on if they had adopted children instead. Indian children lead some of the worst lives on this planet. Bollywood endorsement of adoption could have changed a culture fixated on bloodlines.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 23rd, 2013.
However, for the commercial surrogacy industry in India, Shahrukh Khan need not do more. With his announcement that his third child was born of a surrogate mother, he probably did for the industry, what Barack Obama did for BlackBerry in 2009 by declaring his fondness for the smartphone. The US president’s free publicity of the handheld device is said to have been worth millions of dollars to its makers; SRK’s endorsement of surrogacy cannot be said to be insignificant either, keeping in mind his brand value as the undisputed badshah of Bollywood. And SRK is not alone. He is joined by other Khans, Aamir and Sohail (Salman Khan’s brother), both of whom had children through surrogacy in 2011. Together, they have given, wittingly or otherwise, celebrity endorsement to surrogacy that has seen a boom in recent times amidst ethical concerns and the Indian government’s efforts to put in place a regulation (Assisted Reproductive Technology Regulation Bill).
Whatever may have been the compulsions for SRK (47) and his wife Gauri (42), surrogacy is suddenly ‘cool’ and modern. Indian parents who do not have time to produce babies are looking for wombs on rent. Neither does it have to be a discreet affair, as it used to be in our conservative societies, till recently, despite India having been one of the top fertility tourism destinations of the world for some time now. Rather, it is something to flaunt, something that the rich and famous do. Bollywood’s first couple Shahrukh Khan and Gauri, already parents to Aryan (15) and Suhana (12), have done it. So, why shouldn’t anyone with money? Why take all the trouble when you can get a child with your eyes and hair colour delivered, just like pizza or naan-tadka; when there’s a woman to outsource the morning sickness, shapeless body and labour pains to? Now there is no reason to suppress the desire to have your own baby, the ‘ultimate happiness’ in the world. The Khans have shown how it is more important to have your own child, even if you already have children, than be bothered about ‘non-questions’ on ethics.
Critics of surrogacy are often rubbished as sad people who cannot tolerate the happiness of others, picking holes in something that is such a ‘win-win’ situation for all: the couple gets a baby and the surrogate mother earns a big pot of money? If the woman has made a profession of carrying other people’s babies, she has exercised her choice. She is not a runaway college student or a kid abducted on her way to school. But never have I met a girl who gushed, “Oh, I just cannot wait to become a surrogate mother!” The one picture that I have seen of surrogate mothers is an Associated Press photograph taken at a hospital in Gujarat, a state where unethical clinical trials of yet-to-be-launched drugs is no longer news. There are 12 women in the picture. The only face you can see is that of the doctor, wearing a yellow-and green-sari and a resplendent smile. The rest, surrogate mothers all, are wearing green hospital masks to hide their identities.
Celebrity endorsement has made it cool to overlook the distress of these women, armies of faceless mothers, who do not deserve sympathy because they have ‘exercised a choice’. These women ‘out there to make big money’ — let’s pretend we don’t know their real stories of hardship — are forced to keep their identities a secret to escape the scrutiny of society. That itself puts them in a vulnerable situation. But don’t think twice. The Khans have shown it is all right.
I wonder what they would have missed out on if they had adopted children instead. Indian children lead some of the worst lives on this planet. Bollywood endorsement of adoption could have changed a culture fixated on bloodlines.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 23rd, 2013.