India's Latest Outsourcing: Surrogacy

Some call it surrogacy, or reproductive tourism. In what might be one of the oddest forms of outsourcing, families are choosing to travel overseas to find surrogates in order to complete their dreams of procreation.

A brief look at Surrogacy in the United States

The roots of commercial surrogacy in the United States began in the late 1970's when a Michigan lawyer began the first surrogacy agency and set out to change the laws to make surrogacy legal. Although surrogacy in the US is legal in all but a handful of states, laws vary from state to state. According to surromomsonline.com, the average surrogacy fee given to a surrogate is $10,000-18,000 and that does not include what is paid for as "expenses" (medical, travel, mileage, lost wages, childcare and housekeeping). Infertile couples typically pay anywhere from $60,000-100,000 for a US surrogacy through an agency.

Currently there is no way of knowing how many people use surrogates in the United States as there is no set standards for keeping track of these arrangements.

In the U.S., legitimate agencies carefully screen prospective surrogates and one of the areas they encompass is whether or not women have been on welfare or are economically disadvantaged as they do not want surrogates who are driven by a need for money. In an interview with Lawrence Journal World and News, Rachel Pirmer, a Kansas attorney said, "because of the intensive screening surrogates go through, the chances the mother will change her mind after birth are slim."

All of this provides American surrogates with a small safety net for the duration of their pregnancies as well as post-partum needs, while offering some legal protection for couple seeking a baby.

Reproductive Tourism?

In India, what some refer to as "baby farming" is fueling a half a billion-dollar industry that is quickly popping up in small communities across the country. Compared to industrialized nations, India is a low cost alternative. According to docshop.com, an average surrogacy is less than $10,000 and that includes travel expenses. Once you add that there are highly qualified doctors and a relaxed legal atmosphere, India can look pretty appealing to childless couples.

In what might be the largest "one stop shopping" surrogacy clinic, Dr. Patel who works out of Kaival Hospital in Ananda, matches up prospective parents with surrogates. In exchange for going through IVF treatment (where the infertile couple's sperm and egg are implanted into her uterus) and achieving a successful pregnancy, an Indian woman receives roughly ten times her family's annual income. The surrogates pay a price as well.

Fearing they will be ostracized from their friends and family, they leave their communities and travel far away to become surrogates. "It is just not normal in our culture and not wildly accepted", one surrogate reported.

Patel says she is selective in choosing prospective surrogates and that all of the women in her clinic are already mothers, so they have children to go home to after their surrogacy is completed. She admits that they sign up for the money and says that for many women, this is the first taste of economic freedom they have ever known.

BINLive.com reports that the government of India is currently working on some new laws that aim to protect surrogates. "The proposed legislation will deal broadly with three issues, pre and post-natal health care for the surrogate mother and the child, legal and financial obligation of the client in case of death of either the child or the mother and issues related to organ donations in the future."

Ethical Implications?

While some would say that childless couples deserve to have access to options, others think that traveling to third world countries to get babies, dregs up serious moral questions. Would we allow clinics in impoverished communities across the US to try to attract low-income women to become surrogates without legal rights?

It also raises some specific questions about the Indian women who are used as surrogates. Although the clinics maintain that the women "sign up" willingly, the truth is that as long as their best chance at fleeing poverty is by renting out their womb, that does not imply that they own a "choice".

Sources:
Wallacefour, What Do You Consider Fair?, surromomsonline.com.

Sarah Benson, Surrogate Mother goes Against Trend in Conservative States, Lawerence Journal World and News,

Brian Cole, Surrogacy Clinics in India, A new Twist on Outsourcing,docshop.com,

SummitPandee, Govt Plans New Laws to Curb "Rent a Womb" Racketsibnlive.comibnlive.com