For a few years the surrogacy maternity has become a better known and widespread practice, despite the fact that the business of Surrogate motherhood is not a legal assisted reproduction method in Spain. It is a topic with moral and ethical implications that usually generate controversy and that we have seen reflected on several occasions in fiction, in very different ways. Below we review several series that have included it in their plots and we warn you that if you have not seen any of them there may be spoilers.
‘Friends’
Phoebe’s case
The series of the moment in the 90s was one of the first serial fictions to include the subject of surrogates for rent in its plot, although in this case it was a loan. The first time the subject was discussed in ‘Friends’ went with the character of Phoebe Buffet who decides to lend herself to gestate the children, yes in the plural because they were triplets, of her brother with a woman older than him. This story was the solution of the writers to integrate into the series the real pregnancy of the actress Lisa Kudrow during the fourth season of the series, back in 1998. Phoebe’s decision was not without debate in the series and the rest of the characters. they encouraged the protagonist to reflect on all the implications and risks of her altruistic gesture.
The case of Monica and Chandler
Following Phoebe’s gestation of her brother’s children, the other two protagonists Rachel (Jannifer Aniston) and Monica have a conversation about whether they would offer to be a surrogate for someone else. Rachel replied that she would do it depending on who. “If I ask you…” Monica would say. The talk would take place years before the couple formed by Monica (Courteney Cox) and Chandler (Matthew Perry) discovered their infertility problems and began to consider various alternatives to become parents. This case It is not strictly a surrogate because they decide to adopt and are chosen by a pregnant woman who does not want to be a mother to be the adoptive parents of their children, since they were finally twins. Thus the protagonists became parents twice in the last season of the series.
‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
The subject of the surrogacy business is difficult to address in fiction, and the truth is that there are not so many examples. The HBO series based on the novel by Margaret Atwood take advantage of that is set in a dystopian future to take the issue to the extreme and criticize the subjugation that this practice entails for women. The series is located in the United States where after a war a dictatorial and theocratic government has been established that has established the Republic of Gilead. Among the reasons that lead to this situation are the problems of pollution and birth rates in the world. The totalitarian government implements a system by which remaining fertile women are recruited and made into slavess in the homes of the ruling elites. There they are raped by the man under the guise of a ritual and, after becoming pregnant and giving birth, the children are taken from them to be raised as the children of the rapists’ wives. Elisabeth Moss plays June, one of those maids and the leader of the revolution against the system and the fundamentalist government.
‘Top of the lake: china girl’
The same actress, Elisabeth Moss, stars in another series that also deals with surrogacy as an exploitation practice Women’s. In this case, the second season of the series is set in Australia and shows Thai sex workers who are also used as surrogate mothers for elite couples in Sydney. In this case, Moss plays Detective Robin Griffin who is looking for the daughter she gave up for adoption after becoming pregnant after being raped as a teenager. The series, available until the end of the year on RTVE Play, is directed by Jane Campion and also includes Nicole Kidman or gwendoline christie.
‘Sacred Family’
One of the latest series to address the issue of the surrogacy business is the thriller ‘Sagrada familia’ created by Manolo Caro for Netflix, which will also feature a second season. The creator himself told us at the time that “the idea for the series came from a conversation about surrogate motherhood with a group of friends”. Najwa Nimri leads a very choral cast to reflect motherhood from different perspectives. Full of secrets and script twists, the series shows what is hidden behind the role of courageous mother of Gloria (the character of Nimri) Finally, it is revealed that the baby she treats as her son is actually her grandson, the one she gave birth to due to her daughter-in-law’s fertility problems, and that she intends to stay after the death of her son and considering him her own son for have given birth
