Surrogacy - Documentaries
One Life: Three Sisters Make One Baby
BBC (UK)—Monday 31 October 2005, 21.00 hrs, 60 min
Alex Patrick, 32, discovered she was unable to have children after undergoing chemotherapy. When her sisters found out, Alex's twin sister, Charlotte Pestell, offered to donate eggs. These were then fertilised in a laboratory with sperm from Ms Patrick's husband, Shaun. Ms Patrick's older sister, 35-year old Helen Ritchie, then had an embryo transferred into her womb. While she said she developed a close bond with the child, having carried him for nine months, she said she 'didn't see it as giving him away' and added; 'from day one I never thought of him as my own. We always said we were 'making a baby' for Alex, not 'giving' her one'.
Addicted to Surrogacy
Channel 4 (UK)—9 March 2009, 21.00 hrs
This film explores the extraordinary world of serial surrogates and asks what motivates them to continue to have babies for other people. Is it money, altruism - or something far more complex? Around 1,000 surrogate babies have been born in the UK over the past two decades. In recent years, half of them have been born to serial surrogates: women who have been surrogates more than once. Jill Hawkins, Britain's most prolific childless surrogate, has given away seven babies over the past 18 years. Is it finally time for Jill to wean herself off her need to have babies for other people, and start living her own life?
Made In India
Directors: Rebecca Haimowitz & Vaishali Sinha
Country of origin and year: India, USA, 2011
This is the first feature documentary to show the personal stories of the real people involved — following their journeys throughout the entire surrogacy process. Lisa and Brian are an American couple who believe that hiring an Indian surrogate is their only chance to have a child of their own. This film reveals the legal and ethical implications behind their choices, and presents the conflict between the personal and the political dilemmas of international surrogacy.
http://www.madeinindiamovie.com
House of Surrogates
Tue 1 Oct 2013 21:00 BBC Four, 90 min
Dr Nayna Patel runs a clinic in rural India that attracts childless couples from all over the world. For a fee, they can pay for local women to act as surrogates, spending their entire pregnancy away from home in dorms with up to 80 other pregnant surrogates living alongside them. While critics accuse Dr Patel of exploiting the poor, she believes that she is empowering the local women with life-changing amounts of money.
Future Baby
In 'Future Baby', the Austrian documentary film-maker Maria Arlamovsky journeys around the world, investigating the state of reproductive treatment. The film asks a single question: how far should we go? Arlamovsky tells stories about reproduction that only a generation ago would have sounded like science fiction – women without uteruses giving birth; sperm donors from South Africa matched online with surrogate mothers in India; screening for congenital disorders performed in embryos.
Breeders: A Subclass of Women?
Directors: Matthew Eppinette, Jennifer Lahl, 2014 52 min, USA
Surrogacy is fast becoming one of the major issues of the 21st century, celebrities and everyday people are increasingly using surrogates to build their families. But the practice is fraught with complex implications for women, children, and families. What is the impact on the women who serve as surrogates and on the children who are born from surrogacy? In what ways might money complicate things? What about altruistic surrogacy done for a family member or close friend? Is surrogacy a beautiful, loving act or does it simply degrade pregnancy to a service and a baby to a product? Can we
find a middle ground? Should we even look for one?
http://www.cbc-network.org/products-page/
Google Baby
Directed by Zippi Brand Frank
Country of origin and year: Israel, 2009
Google Baby is a journey across three continents telling the story of the up-and-coming baby production industry in the age of globalization. Doron, an Israeli entrepreneur with a high tech background proposes a new service - Baby production. The baby producer (as he introduces himself) provides customers with a cost effective solution using outsourcing of the surrogacy element to India as way to lower prices. Today, technology has turned 'making a baby' into an act independent of sex. And globalization is making it affordable.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/google-baby/episode-guide/
I’m Pregnant With Their Baby
Documentary telling the story of three young women who have each decided to give a childless couple the ultimate gift - a baby of their own. But, as they discover, the reality of giving someone a baby is not exactly as they imagined it might be.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013y232
Ghosts of the République
The documentary follows Nicolas and Aurelien on their journey to parenthood. They are newly married and like so many others in this position, open about their desire for children of their own. However, as a same-sex couple, they know that their chances of adoption are slim. So, they turn to surrogacy and travel to Las Vegas to work with an egg donor and a surrogate. The film highlights the challenges they face as well as the joy they experience.