The Baby Chase: How Surrogacy Is Transforming the American Family

Steiner’s (Crazy Love) look at surrogacy is less of a journalistic inquiry into this “most radical infertility solution” than a compassionate plea for broader acceptance of “collaborative pregnancy” and “shared motherhood.” Steiner recounts the evolution of the $10 billion infertility business through the narrative of a Canadian-American couple, Rhonda and Gerry Wile, who turn to the “nascent industry” of gestational surrogacy in India, where it is not only legal to hire a woman to bear your baby, but much cheaper than in the U.S. Steiner mentions, but lightly glosses over, the many ethical, legal, and societal complications of surrogate birth in favor of stressing her emotional appeals. She describes infertility as a “crushing, soul-sucking” condition that cripples its victims with lifelong physical and psychological damage. Her portrayal of the Wiles’s struggles reveals the deeply embedded cultural reverence for the power of genetics and the need for public understanding —and perhaps oversight—of this “unmapped emotional, legal, and ethical terrain.” Overall, Steiner succeeds in both aims closest to her heart: to raise awareness about infertility and to share the fulfillment of the Wiles’s dream to have “a baby that felt like theirs.” Photos. Agent: Alice Martell, the Martell Agency. (Nov.)