A Transnational Feminist View of Surrogacy Biomarkets in India (PDF)

Sheela Saravanan, PhD, has two master's degrees from the Universities of Bombay and Pune in India in Geography and Development Planning. Her Ph.D. from Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia in Public Health was on the influence of biomedical frameworks of knowledge on local birthing practices in India. She has worked and published on the status of reproductive health in South Asia, violence against women and female infanticide in India earlier and now specializes in new and assisted reproductive technologies in the context of Asia and Europe. Since 2007 she has worked in the Universities of Heidelberg, Bonn and Goettingen in Germany. She has published on global injustice, exploitation and objectification in the process of commercial surrogacy in India. Since January 2016 she has been working at the South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg on a DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) funded project. The research aims to examine individual notions of 'desired children' (Wunschkinder/Vansh) shaped by social experiences in the German and Indian contexts that lead to selective abortions. She teaches Global Reproductive Technologies: Socio-Ethical and Legal Dimensions; Theories and Practice of Reproductive Technologies and Feminism and Public Health to bachelor's and master's students studying anthropology at the South Asia Institute, Department of Anthropology, University of Heidelberg, Germany.

“A Transnational Feminist View of Surrogacy Biomarkets in India addresses the development of a market for surrogate motherhood in India, tackling new reproductive technologies and medical competences … . Given the amount of scientific references and data, the book will be of interest for scholars and specialists, but also for all those activists, students, or general interest readers who deal with the legal and ethical issues raised by ARTs.” (Ana-Luana Stoicea-Deram, Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory, Vol. 4 (01), july, 2018)​