WHEN 46-year-old Radha Patel gave birth to her own grandchildren, last month, not only did it trigger a debate about the ethics of surrogate motherhood but also led to a discussion……..The overwhelming desire to have a child is the product of a deep-seated, instinctive and evolutionary urge to perpetuate the species and pass on the genetic material to another. It is this archetypal desire, embedded in our collective unconscious, which often spurs human
beings to have children at any cost, come what may. “It is this irrepressible drive that propels man to go to any extent to propagate his genes,” says Nirja Chawla, a gynaecologist, adding, “motherhood is important for completion of self.” To this biological drive add the socially conditioned expectations of the role and function of a woman and you know why so many people flock to fertility clinics in the region. And it is a blatant exploitation of this desire to have children that makes millionaires out of gynaecologists in the business who laugh all the way to the bank.
by Aruti Nayar Sunday, February 29, 2004 The Sunday Tribune