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15 guide 12-18 Aug 2017

e are not quite in Gilead

territory yet, but there

is no doubt it’s getting

harder to have a baby in the

UK. Social trends and economic

pressures mean many delay

parenthood until their natural

fertility has declined, just as a

cash-strapped NHS implements

new limits on IVF. Since the start

of the year, 13 areas of England

have restricted or completely

halted treatments, with a further

eight consulting on taking similar

steps. It is in this context that

the number of UK babies born

to surrogates leapt from 117 in

2011 to 331 in 2015. The figure

for 2016 is predicted to top 400,

with many couples pursuing

costly arrangements abroad

(data in 2015 showed a total of

57 destinations) and many more

either considering surrogacy or

making the kinds of informal

arrangements that don’t show up

in statistics.

Is it any wonder, then, that two

of the best TV dramas of the year

so far are all about other women’s

wombs? The Handmaid’s Tale,

which came to an end on Channel

4 last month, and Top of the

Lake: China Girl, also starring

Elisabeth Moss and currently

airing on BBC 2. One takes place in

a future dystopian US, the other

in contemporary Sydney, but

both conceive of a world where

infertility is the scourge of the

privileged and surrogacy is the

far-from-simple cure.

Making babies in

unconventional ways used to be

a lot more fun. It was a light-

hearted storyline for Friends

when Phoebe had triplets as a

favour to her estranged half-

brother, and Manhattanites

Monica and Chandler got mixed

up with a ditzy pregnant teen

from the midwest. The New

Normal was an entire surrogacy-

themed sitcom, airing from 2012

to 2013 on NBC and, in India

• where commercial surrogacy
  was made legal in 2002 (though
  legislation is currently on the
  table to prohibit it) – the topic has
  long been popular in soap operas.
  However, those with on-the-
  ground experience have argued
  against too rosy a depiction of this
  multimillion dollar industry. In
  2012, gynaecologist Suman Bijlani
  shared with the Times of India
  her concern that “soaps portray
  these procedures as almost
  frivolous” and therefore result
  in “unrealistic expectations ”.
  In the US, where commercial
  surrogacy is legal in some states,
  former paediatric nurse Jennifer
  Lahl founded San Francisco’s
  Cent er for Bioethics and Culture
  in part to “expose the myth that
  surrogacy is as charitable an
  endeavour as many think it is. In
  fact, it leaves countless exploited
  women in its wake.”
  We meet several such
  exploited women in Top of
  the Lake: China Girl, Thai sex
  workers living in Sydney and
  acting as illegal surrogates to
  wealthy Australian couples.
  There must be something in
  the water, because stories of
  childlessness abound on-screen
  and off. Detective Robin Griffin
  (Moss) confides her three
  miscarriages to a friend who
  suggests it is “Nature trying
  to tell you something”, while
  her own natural child is the
  now-teenage Mary, played

W

Mother load

Nicole Kidman as

Julia in Top of the

Lake: China Girl

Mothe

NicNole

Julia i

Lake: