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Contract Motherhood In The Handmaid's Tale

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1A. Ketchum feels very strongly against contracted motherhood for a number of reasons. She believes that contracted motherhood turns both women and children into property. Another complaint is that men are allowed to control the birth mother in various way. Also, women in under this contract are legally required to give up the children they bear, unlike in the case of adoption. 1B. There are many parallels between contracted motherhood and the dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale. In the novel, women are treated purely as fertility objects devoid of any rights in a patriarchal society. For some women entering contracted motherhood, they will be controlled by the fathers. For instance, in a particular pre-birth contract a woman had to agree to not taking medication without a doctor’s order, and to follow all of the doctor’s orders (Ketchum 626). The author also connects contracted motherhood with prostitution, each activity ‘rents’ a woman’s body. The woman’s womb is turned into a nurturing hotel where Forcing women to give away their children is utterly deplorable, and there should not be included in the contract. Back in the 1980’s a New Jersey woman signed a contract for 10,000 and was impregnated with the father’s sperm (The New York Times). When she gave birth to her daughter, she took her child to Florida trying …show more content…

The fact that there is a pre-birth contract is the first place would probably be enough to annoy Ketchum. As I mentioned the contract, the contract cannot force Juno to give away her child. However, she is still signing a contract in the first place. Ketchum also worries about the rich taking the babies of the poor. Mark and Vanessa are certainly a very affluent couple in a massive house. Juno, in contrast, is a teenager from a working-class family. Juno explains that she wants the child to have a better life than she could provide it. Juno also observes that Vanessa is a very nurturing person, and it is evident that she will make a wonderful

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