A Surrogated Mother- A Short Fiction

A Surrogated Mother

I was working for a European based International Nongovernmental Organization in one of the south-east Asian countries. My job was to help sexually abused women and troubled surrogated mothers in a big city in the country. Rather than medicine, counseling was the best method to enable the victims to return to a normal life. I was a counselor.

The poverty prevailing in the county had forced women either to be involved in prostitution or to be a surrogated mother just to make a living. Many brothels, running illegally, were exploiting young women and making a huge amount of money by using the innocents’ body. A large number of women who were involved in prostitution were not happy to be in the profession and were seeking alternatives. Some aid agencies were helping them to get out of the brothels and away from the pimps and start a safer life. Many women were fighting with HIV and most of them were dying for lack of medicine that was very expensive.

One day a woman in her late twenties came to my office with tears in her eyes and requested help. She was a troubled surrogated mother. She agreed to be a surrogated mother for the intended parents for a large amount of money. The money she took was just for her survival. A couple from another country had just used her uterus because it was a gestational surrogacy. It was not a traditional surrogacy. In gestational surrogacy, the resulting child is not related to the surrogate. The gestational surrogate is referred to as gestational carrier.

I asked her, “Why are you crying. What is your main problem?”

She said, “I agreed to be a surrogated mother. Yes, I am a gestational carrier; however, I don’t want to sell my child. It is a part of my body. I don’t want him to go with them. They are forcing me to give up the child with the help of the law.”

“Why did you agree to be a surrogated mother?” I asked.

“It was my poverty that compelled me to do so.” she replied.

I asked, “What can I do for you?”

“Please convince the couple to leave the child with me. Please ask them to show mercy and not take any legal action to take the child. They are only biological parents but I am the real parent. I am the true mother. I have kept the baby in my uterus for nine months while they have done nothing. They just have given some chemicals which were inserted into my body. That is it.”   She began to cry.  

She continued, “I did a very shameful deed. I am regretting it, but at same time, I am finding no any reason to live.”

“If the couple agrees, and the legal case comes to an end, will you give up being a surrogated mother?” 

“I don’t know.” She said.”

“Why?”

“It is better to be a surrogated mother than starving. An empty stomach can kill any one and everything. It can kill religion, nationality, morality, humanity, and soul.”

She added, “This is my first child. I want to keep him with me. I love him deeply. Motherhood is stopping me from abandoning him. My request is only to leave this child with me.”

I remained silent.

She said, “You are rich people. You never have experienced the fire of hunger. This fire can burn anything without any mercy.”

I had no comments. 

Bishwa Raj Adhikari