Prelims

Half Title Page

Surrogacy in Russia

Series Title Page

Emerald Studies in Reproduction, Culture and Society

Series Editors: Petra Nordqvist, Manchester University, UK and Nicky Hudson, De Montfort University, UK

This book series brings together scholars from across the social sciences and humanities who are working in the broad field of human reproduction. Reproduction is a growing field of interest in the UK and internationally, and this series publishes work from across the lifecycle of reproduction addressing issues such as conception, contraception, abortion, pregnancy, birth, infertility, pre and postnatal care, pre-natal screen and testing, IVF, prenatal genetic diagnosis, mitochondrial donation, surrogacy, adoption, reproductive donation, family-making and more. Books in this series will focus on the social, cultural, material, legal, historical and political aspects of human reproduction, encouraging work from early career researchers as well as established scholars. The series includes monographs, edited collections and shortform books (between 20 and 50,000 words). Contributors use the latest conceptual, methodological and theoretical developments to enhance and develop current thinking about human reproduction and its significance for understanding wider social practices and processes.

Title Page

Surrogacy in Russia: An Ethnography of Reproductive Labour, Stratification and Migration

By

Christina Weis

De Montfort University, UK

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2021

Copyright © 2021 Christina Weis

Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited

Cover art copyright © 2020 Philipp Weis, Whose motherhood? Used with permission.

Reprints and permissions service

Contact: permissions@emeraldinsight.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters' suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-83982-897-3 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-83982-896-6 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-83982-898-0 (Epub)

Dedication

To my parents, Hildegard and Karl Weis

List of Figures

Note on Conversion

In this book, I provide an average conversion rate from the Russian Rouble to British Pound Sterling calculated for the time of my second data collection in 2014/2015.

In the winter of 2014, the Russian currency experienced a strong inflation. To illustrate, a common final compensation of 800,000 ₽ for a surrogacy arrangement in St. Petersburg fluctuated between approximately £13,300 in August 2014, £9,950 in December 2014 and £10,200 in May 2015.

Payments for surrogacy pregnancies in Russia commonly entail the details as listed in the table below. Because of the fluctuation of the Russian Rouble over the course of my research, I am rendering a conversion to British Pound Sterling based on an average for 2014/2015.

Acknowledgements

There are so many people who supported me, inspired me and contributed to this book.

I want to start with those who allowed me to study their work and lives, the surrogacy workers and client parents in Russia. Thank you for trusting me and sharing openly with me your experiences, feelings, worries and hopes – that you so often concealed so carefully from your own families and friends. For sake of confidentiality I cannot name you, and the same applies to all the medical professionals who acted as gatekeepers and consultants. Thank you for giving me your time, for helping me get insights and access and slowly building a network.

Thank you to everyone who listened to my stories of fieldwork, the happy and ecstatic ones, the ones that brought tears of sadness or rage to my eyes, the too descriptive or too bloody ones, and the ones I struggled to put into words. Thank you for letting me rant and vent, for giving me space to reflect and a safe space of comfort, and for asking me the right questions at the right time, prompting me to put my emotions and knowledge into words. Thank you for nurturing my resilience.

Heaps of this book are based on my MSc and doctoral research. I therefore want to thank Prof Ton Robben and Dr Hans de Kruijf, who were my supervisors during my first fieldwork period in 2011/2012 during my MSc studies in Cultural Anthropology at Utrecht University. A massive thank you to Prof Nicky Hudson and Dr Sally Ruane (De Montfort University), who supervised me during my doctoral research from 2013 to 2017, and provided me with expert guidance and advice, inspiration and encouragement, tireless patience and kindness, and throughout my doctoral studies gave me the feeling that I will succeed. I could not have imagined better supervisors!

In addition, I would like to thank Dr Robbie Davis-Floyd, with whom I interned in 2016 and 2017, while writing up my PhD thesis, and Prof Sharmila Rudrappa, who I met during these stays in Austin, TX, and whose insights and advice continue to guide me in my work. I also want to thank and acknowledge Dr Aurelia Weikert, who taught me in the ‘Anthropology of Assisted Reproduction’ during my undergraduate studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Vienna. You were the first to draw my attention to assisted reproduction and sparked what was to come. Thank you Dr Michal Nahman for your ongoing support, friendship and academic mentorship, and staying faithful to coffee with olives (only in Barcelona!) despite your (else) culinary excellence.

Thank you to all members of the Centre for Reproduction Research (CRR) at De Montfort University for being the most wonderful and supportive colleagues and friends from the moment I joined the CRR. Thank you for supporting my growth from a doctoral student to an early career researcher. Thank you, in particular, Dr Wendy Norton, my companion in surrogacy research, Sasha Loyal, Jess Turner, Dr Kriss Fearon, Caroline Law, Dr Cathy Herbrand, Dr Kylie Baldwin, Dr Esmeé Hanna, Dr Raksha Pandya-Wood and Prof Lorraine Culley. Thank you, in particular, Esmeé for the encouraging mentoring, Kriss for the countless hours of dedicated proofreading, and Zaheera Essat and Wendy for answering my countless medical questions on IVF and pregnancy.

Огромное спасибо to my friends and colleagues in Russia: Zhanna Yureva, captain of the White Nights Furies, the St. Petersburg roller derby team. From the first moment I set foot into St. Petersburg for my MSc research in 2012 and met you at the Netherlands Institute (‘Can I ask you a straight-forward question? Where do the not straight people meet?’) to hugging me goodbye on my last day of my doctoral research, you were there, unconditionally, whenever and wherever I needed you. I will never forget that you bought and set up a Christmas tree for me at your home and invited me on Christmas Eve to make sure I am not alone for ‘my’ Christmas. Alena Lysenkina, my housemate and soulmate during my second research visit in 2014/2015. Rarely one meets a person as kind and loving to all creatures, green-leaved, two-legged, four-legged or one-eyed, as you are. Thank you for your friendship and sharing a home full of rescue animals, plants, home-baked bread, pancakes and art. Serghey Poliyanski, without batting an eye, you stayed back evening after evening at the end of our weekly Dutch lessons at the Netherlands Institute to help me in translating the tricky bits of my Russian interviews. Thank you for the Saturdays at yours, filled with coffee and laughter. And thank you for insisting on my hot water footbath after returning from the New Year's party, while watching and waiting with sleepy eyes. Thank you to the three of you, for your tireless transcription and translation help, and for continuing to support my research by sending me news and updates from Russia, and answering my questions long after I had left. And Kirsi Kalliomäki! Thank you for sharing the assortment of biscuits that accompanied your most expensive coffee of your life (to be had in the St. Petersburg Kempinski Hotel on the opening of the 2014 LGBT film festival). You truly were a ray of sunshine during the dark winter days, and the many coffees that accompanied our friendship well needed.

Thank you to the Netherlands Institute in St. Petersburg (NISPb) for the research grant that supported my MSc research visit, and especially Mila Chevalier for so generously extending your welcome for me to continue using your facilities throughout my field research (including the access to the coffee machine). Thank you Mila, as well as Luuc Kooijmans and Petra Couvée, for making sure I learned Dutch while living in Russia and helping me out so many times when I got myself stuck, including getting me out of a tricky housing situation. By making me part of the NISPb community, you did not just gave me a place to work and fuel on coffee but also a place to recharge and a kitchen to go to for a chat, kindness and comfort.

Thank you to the Centre for Independent Social Research (CISR) in St. Petersburg for hosting my seminar in 2014, and in particular Dr Olga Tkach for your continuous support and feedback on my work! Thank you to the University of St. Petersburg and State University of Technology and Design for inviting me and organising my stay in Russia as a visiting research student and visiting researcher, respectively.

More words of thanks go to Dr Aghogho Ekpruke – my good friend and confidant since I came to the United Kingdom for my doctoral studies. We both know how sometimes you believed more in me than I did myself, and how so often you just check in at the right time and find the right words to lift me up. I celebrate our friendship.

Thank you to Dr Sayani Mitra, my other companion in surrogacy research and an inspiration throughout our doctoral journeys and beyond. Thank you, Dr Marcin Smietana, who never fails to be kind and encouraging. Thank you for the valuable discussions and feedback on drafts and the cheerleading. Likewise, thank you, Dr Anindita Majumdar, for the neverending encouragement. Thank you also Maria Kirpichenko for all the chats on surrogacy and reproductive politics in Russia and the insights you gave me.

Thank you to my friends Eva, Sabrina and Vroni, who have been sharing and encouraging my excitement in studying (medical) anthropology from the very beginning, and thank you for all your love.

Sabrina, thank you also for reading first drafts and providing detailed feedback. Likewise thank you, Cameron, for appearing as a proofreader out of nowhere just weeks before submission after coming to my yoga classes! That was so unexpected and so helpful!

Thank you, Olga Yegorova, for helping me to assemble the desk from which I wrote this book!

Thank you, Emerald Publishing Team! It was lovely and so easy to work with you. I can only recommend you!

Thank you to a long list of friends (and colleagues) who were just there while I was doing this research and as this book took shape, and who listened and were kind and wonderful: Ryan James Ludlam, Dr Bruna Alvarez, Dr Yuliya Hilevych, Dr Aamir Hussein, Rita, Rob, Phil, Jason Finn, Filipe Machado Ferreira, Eric and Marcia and Emma and the Mount of Oaks Community, Joseph Akande, Dr Goffredo Polizzi, Suz Coughtrie, Dr Sara Thornton, Dr Anika König, Paschal Gumadwong Bagonza, Prof Christa Craven, Dr Linda Toledo, Dr Periklis Papaloukas, Dr Sebastian Cordoba, Lindsay and Rose, and James Kerr, who is especially dear to me.

And finally, coming last, but not least, because they held me and all of this together: thank you mum and dad, Hildegard and Karl Weis, and my brothers Felix and Philipp (who designed the cover image)! Thank you for your love and support – your daughter and sister, always travelling, always ‘somewhere’, yet always close.