“I didn’t learn much about the embryo, my job was to look after the baby” – On the Construction of the Unborn in Pregnancies for Third Parties

Zur Konstruktion des Ungeborenen in Schwangerschaften für Dritte

Abstract

The Text focuses on the experiences of surrogacy. It draws on biographical-narrative interviews with surrogates from the United Kingdom, where surrogacy can be practiced legally in a limited form. The analysis centers on the construction of the unborn, specifically, how surrogates themselves navigate a pregnancy carried for others and which ascriptions to the unborn can be traced across different stages of pregnancy. Four parts from a larger sample of interviews are interpreted with respect to this question. The findings indicate that ascriptions to the unborn begin as early as the surrogate’s perspective on their own eggs. Furthermore, the interplay between genetic relatedness and pregnancy emerges as a relevant dimension for the interviewed surrogates. Both aspects are linked to forms of prenatal interaction. Surrogates must not only clarify their own sense of relational belonging to the child but also communicate their embodied experiences to the intended parents. Taken together, this tracing of perspectives raises additional questions that require further investigation if pregnancies carried for others are to be fully understood in their social, embodied, and relational dimensions.