“Quiet, dependent, nice, and loyal”: Surrogacy agencies’ discourse of international surrogacy

INTRODUCTION In 2014, Peter Andrews and Fiona Woods published a book that celebrated thirty-six global entrepreneurs who “transform human societies” and make the world a better place (2014). The authors chose the protagonists for their book according to the challenges the human race is facing at the moment: climate change, the economic crisis, finding a cure for the AIDS epidemic, and more. On their list, alongside known figures such as Oprah Winfrey, Mark Zuckerberg, and Ingvar Kampard (the founder of IKEA furniture and design superstores), they placed one Israeli, Doron Mamet, who is the founder of the Tammuz international surrogacy agency. Mamet is a known figure in the Israeli public, who has reached international acclaim as the protagonist of the Google Baby 2010 Emmy award winner documentary. In response to his inclusion in the book, Mamet stated that: Neither us, nor the surrogates chose to be in this situation. We, intended parents, would have liked to be able to carry the pregnancy on our own, and the surrogates would have been happy to be in a better financial situation. … However, given the state of affairs, both sides are happy there is a solution. Any attempt, in the name of ethics, to prevent our right to parenthood and the surrogate’s right to improve her situation is tainted by severe ethical fault. (Mako, December 9, 2013) Israel is widely acknowledged for its pro-natal values (Birenbaum-Carmeli and Carmeli 2010; Donat 2007; Fogiel-Bijaoui 1999; Gooldin 2008; Nahman 2006) and for its leadership position in the global reproductive industry (Mashiach et al. 2010). The fact that an Israeli surrogacy broker was chosen as one of thirty-six leading entrepreneurs around the globe, and the way he chose to frame his message, raises awareness of the manner in which commercial surrogacy is incorporated within the contemporary neoliberal global economy as a site for the rearticulation of social norms as well as for profit extraction. This is true especially in a state such as Israel where families and childrearing bear great social significance.