Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism

Angel For Hire explores the implications of signing away one’s bodily rights to bear a stranger’s child. As Angel, a surrogate mother, nears the end of her pregnancy, a complication emerges. Angel faces the possibility of a contract-mandated c-section against her wishes.

Also unfolding is the story of a pioneering Michigan-based attorney, Noel Keane. Keane wrote the first surrogacy contract in 1976, a time when the concept of a “surrogate mother” seemed outrageous. That contract launched Keane’s controversial career as the most visible middleman in surrogate parenting, an industry that to this day relies primarily on contracts for regulation.