World outsources pregnancies to India
⬤
public
World outsources pregnancies to India
Giving Birth Becomes Latest Job Outsourced to India As Commercial
Surrogacy Takes Off
SAM DOLNICK
AP News
Dec 30, 2007 15:02 EST
Every night in this quiet western Indian city, 15 pregnant women
prepare for sleep in the spacious house they share, ascending the
stairs in a procession of ballooned bellies, to bedrooms that become a
landscape of soft hills.
A team of maids, cooks and doctors looks after the women, whose
pregnancies would be unusual anywhere else but are common here. The
young mothers of Anand, a place famous for its milk, are pregnant with
the children of infertile couples from around the world.
The small clinic at Kaival Hospital matches infertile couples with
local women, cares for the women during pregnancy and delivery, and
counsels them afterward. Anand's surrogate mothers, pioneers in the
growing field of outsourced pregnancies, have given birth to roughly
40 babies.
More than 50 women in this city are now pregnant with the children of
couples from the United States, Taiwan, Britain and beyond. The women
earn more than many would make in 15 years. But the program raises a
host of uncomfortable questions that touch on morals and modern
science, exploitation and globalization, and that most natural of
desires: to have a family.
Dr. Nayna Patel, the woman behind Anand's baby boom, defends her work
as meaningful for everyone involved.
"There is this one woman who desperately needs a baby and cannot have
her own child without the help of a surrogate. And at the other end
there is this woman who badly wants to help her (own) family," Patel
said. "If this female wants to help the other one ... why not allow
that? ... It's not for any bad cause. They're helping one another to
have a new life in this world."
Experts say commercial surrogacy — or what has been called "wombs for
rent" — is growing in India. While no reliable numbers track such
pregnancies nationwide, doctors work with surrogates in virtually
every major city. The women are impregnated in-vitro with the egg and
sperm of couples unable to conceive on their own.
Commercial surrogacy has been legal in India since 2002, as it is in
many other countries, including the United States. But India is the
leader in making it a viable industry rather than a rare fertility
treatment. Experts say it could take off for the same reasons
outsourcing in other industries has been successful: a wide labor pool
working for relatively low rates.
Critics say the couples are exploiting poor women in India — a country
with an alarmingly high maternal death rate — by hiring them at a
cut-rate cost to undergo the hardship, pain and risks of labor.
"It raises the factor of baby farms in developing countries," said Dr.
John Lantos of the Center for Practical Bioethics in Kansas City, Mo.
"It comes down to questions of voluntariness and risk."
Patel's surrogates are aware of the risks because they've watched
others go through them. Many of the mothers know one another, or are
even related. Three sisters have all borne strangers' children, and
their sister-in-law is pregnant with a second surrogate baby. Nearly
half the babies have been born to foreign couples while the rest have
gone to Indians.
Ritu Sodhi, a furniture importer from Los Angeles who was born in
India, spent $200,000 trying to get pregnant through in-vitro
fertilization, and was considering spending another $80,000 to hire a
surrogate mother in the United States.
"We were so desperate," she said. "It was emotionally and financially
exhausting."
Then, on the Internet, Sodhi found Patel's clinic.
After spending about $20,000 — more than many couples because it took
the surrogate mother several cycles to conceive — Sodhi and her
husband are now back home with their 4-month-old baby, Neel. They plan
to return to Anand for a second child.
"Even if it cost $1 million, the joy that they had delivered to me is
so much more than any money that I have given them," said Sodhi.
"They're godsends to deliver something so special."
Patel's center is believed to be unique in offering one-stop service.
Other clinics may request that the couple bring in their own
surrogate, often a family member or friend, and some place classified
ads. But in Anand the couple just provides the egg and sperm and the
clinic does the rest, drawing from a waiting list of tested and ready
surrogates.
Young women are flocking to the clinic to sign up for the list.
Suman Dodia, a pregnant, baby-faced 26-year-old, said she will buy a
house with the $4,500 she receives from the British couple whose child
she's carrying. It would have taken her 15 years to earn that on her
maid's monthly salary of $25.
Dodia's own three children were delivered at home and she said she
never visited a doctor during those pregnancies.
"It's very different with medicine," Dodia said, resting her hands on
her hugely pregnant belly. "I'm being more careful now than I was with
my own pregnancy."
Patel said she carefully chooses which couples to help and which women
to hire as surrogates. She only accepts couples with serious fertility
issues, like survivors of uterine cancer. The surrogate mothers have
to be between 18 and 45, have at least one child of their own, and be
in good medical shape.
Like some fertility reality show, a rotating cast of surrogate mothers
live together in a home rented by the clinic and overseen by a former
surrogate mother. They receive their children and husbands as visitors
during the day, when they're not busy with English or computer classes.
"They feel like my family," said Rubina Mandul, 32, the surrogate
house's den mother. "The first 10 days are hard, but then they don't
want to go home."
Mandul, who has two sons of her own, gave birth to a child for an
American couple in February. She said she misses the baby, but she
stays in touch with the parents over the Internet. A photo of the
American couple with the child hangs over the sofa.
"They need a baby more than me," she said.
The surrogate mothers and the parents sign a contract that promises
the couple will cover all medical expenses in addition to the woman's
payment, and the surrogate mother will hand over the baby after birth.
The couples fly to Anand for the in-vitro fertilization and again for
the birth. Most couples end up paying the clinic less than $10,000 for
the entire procedure, including fertilization, the fee to the mother
and medical expenses.
Counseling is a major part of the process and Patel tells the women to
think of the pregnancy as "someone's child comes to stay at your place
for nine months."
Kailas Gheewala, 25, said she doesn't think of the pregnancy as her own.
"The fetus is theirs, so I'm not sad to give it back," said Gheewala,
who plans to save the $6,250 she's earning for her two daughters'
education. "The child will go to the U.S. and lead a better life and
I'll be happy."
Patel said none of the surrogate mothers has had especially difficult
births or serious medical problems, but risks are inescapable.
"We have to be very careful," she said. "We overdo all the health
investigations. We do not take any chances."
Health experts expect to see more Indian commercial surrogacy programs
in coming years. Dr. Indira Hinduja, a prominent fertility specialist
who was behind India's first test-tube baby two decades ago, receives
several surrogacy inquiries a month from couples overseas.
"People are accepting it," said Hinduja. "Earlier they used to be
ashamed but now they are becoming more broadminded."
But if commercial surrogacy keeps growing, some fear it could change
>from a medical necessity for infertile women to a convenience for the
rich.
"You can picture the wealthy couples of the West deciding that
pregnancy is just not worth the trouble anymore and the whole industry
will be farmed out," said Lantos.
Or, Lantos said, competition among clinics could lead to compromised
safety measures and "the clinic across the street offers it for 20
percent less and one in Bangladesh undercuts that and pretty soon
conditions get bad."
The industry is not regulated by the government. Health officials have
issued nonbinding ethical guidelines and called for legislation to
protect the surrogates and the children.
For now, the surrogate mothers in Anand seem as pleased with the
arrangement as the new parents.
"I know this isn't mine," said Jagrudi Sharma, 34, pointing to her
belly. "But I'm giving happiness to another couple. And it's great for
me."
Giving Birth Becomes Latest Job Outsourced to India As Commercial
Surrogacy Takes Off
SAM DOLNICK
AP News
Dec 30, 2007 15:02 EST
Every night in this quiet western Indian city, 15 pregnant women
prepare for sleep in the spacious house they share, ascending the
stairs in a procession of ballooned bellies, to bedrooms that become a
landscape of soft hills.
A team of maids, cooks and doctors looks after the women, whose
pregnancies would be unusual anywhere else but are common here. The
young mothers of Anand, a place famous for its milk, are pregnant with
the children of infertile couples from around the world.
The small clinic at Kaival Hospital matches infertile couples with
local women, cares for the women during pregnancy and delivery, and
counsels them afterward. Anand's surrogate mothers, pioneers in the
growing field of outsourced pregnancies, have given birth to roughly
40 babies.
More than 50 women in this city are now pregnant with the children of
couples from the United States, Taiwan, Britain and beyond. The women
earn more than many would make in 15 years. But the program raises a
host of uncomfortable questions that touch on morals and modern
science, exploitation and globalization, and that most natural of
desires: to have a family.
Dr. Nayna Patel, the woman behind Anand's baby boom, defends her work
as meaningful for everyone involved.
"There is this one woman who desperately needs a baby and cannot have
her own child without the help of a surrogate. And at the other end
there is this woman who badly wants to help her (own) family," Patel
said. "If this female wants to help the other one ... why not allow
that? ... It's not for any bad cause. They're helping one another to
have a new life in this world."
Experts say commercial surrogacy — or what has been called "wombs for
rent" — is growing in India. While no reliable numbers track such
pregnancies nationwide, doctors work with surrogates in virtually
every major city. The women are impregnated in-vitro with the egg and
sperm of couples unable to conceive on their own.
Commercial surrogacy has been legal in India since 2002, as it is in
many other countries, including the United States. But India is the
leader in making it a viable industry rather than a rare fertility
treatment. Experts say it could take off for the same reasons
outsourcing in other industries has been successful: a wide labor pool
working for relatively low rates.
Critics say the couples are exploiting poor women in India — a country
with an alarmingly high maternal death rate — by hiring them at a
cut-rate cost to undergo the hardship, pain and risks of labor.
"It raises the factor of baby farms in developing countries," said Dr.
John Lantos of the Center for Practical Bioethics in Kansas City, Mo.
"It comes down to questions of voluntariness and risk."
Patel's surrogates are aware of the risks because they've watched
others go through them. Many of the mothers know one another, or are
even related. Three sisters have all borne strangers' children, and
their sister-in-law is pregnant with a second surrogate baby. Nearly
half the babies have been born to foreign couples while the rest have
gone to Indians.
Ritu Sodhi, a furniture importer from Los Angeles who was born in
India, spent $200,000 trying to get pregnant through in-vitro
fertilization, and was considering spending another $80,000 to hire a
surrogate mother in the United States.
"We were so desperate," she said. "It was emotionally and financially
exhausting."
Then, on the Internet, Sodhi found Patel's clinic.
After spending about $20,000 — more than many couples because it took
the surrogate mother several cycles to conceive — Sodhi and her
husband are now back home with their 4-month-old baby, Neel. They plan
to return to Anand for a second child.
"Even if it cost $1 million, the joy that they had delivered to me is
so much more than any money that I have given them," said Sodhi.
"They're godsends to deliver something so special."
Patel's center is believed to be unique in offering one-stop service.
Other clinics may request that the couple bring in their own
surrogate, often a family member or friend, and some place classified
ads. But in Anand the couple just provides the egg and sperm and the
clinic does the rest, drawing from a waiting list of tested and ready
surrogates.
Young women are flocking to the clinic to sign up for the list.
Suman Dodia, a pregnant, baby-faced 26-year-old, said she will buy a
house with the $4,500 she receives from the British couple whose child
she's carrying. It would have taken her 15 years to earn that on her
maid's monthly salary of $25.
Dodia's own three children were delivered at home and she said she
never visited a doctor during those pregnancies.
"It's very different with medicine," Dodia said, resting her hands on
her hugely pregnant belly. "I'm being more careful now than I was with
my own pregnancy."
Patel said she carefully chooses which couples to help and which women
to hire as surrogates. She only accepts couples with serious fertility
issues, like survivors of uterine cancer. The surrogate mothers have
to be between 18 and 45, have at least one child of their own, and be
in good medical shape.
Like some fertility reality show, a rotating cast of surrogate mothers
live together in a home rented by the clinic and overseen by a former
surrogate mother. They receive their children and husbands as visitors
during the day, when they're not busy with English or computer classes.
"They feel like my family," said Rubina Mandul, 32, the surrogate
house's den mother. "The first 10 days are hard, but then they don't
want to go home."
Mandul, who has two sons of her own, gave birth to a child for an
American couple in February. She said she misses the baby, but she
stays in touch with the parents over the Internet. A photo of the
American couple with the child hangs over the sofa.
"They need a baby more than me," she said.
The surrogate mothers and the parents sign a contract that promises
the couple will cover all medical expenses in addition to the woman's
payment, and the surrogate mother will hand over the baby after birth.
The couples fly to Anand for the in-vitro fertilization and again for
the birth. Most couples end up paying the clinic less than $10,000 for
the entire procedure, including fertilization, the fee to the mother
and medical expenses.
Counseling is a major part of the process and Patel tells the women to
think of the pregnancy as "someone's child comes to stay at your place
for nine months."
Kailas Gheewala, 25, said she doesn't think of the pregnancy as her own.
"The fetus is theirs, so I'm not sad to give it back," said Gheewala,
who plans to save the $6,250 she's earning for her two daughters'
education. "The child will go to the U.S. and lead a better life and
I'll be happy."
Patel said none of the surrogate mothers has had especially difficult
births or serious medical problems, but risks are inescapable.
"We have to be very careful," she said. "We overdo all the health
investigations. We do not take any chances."
Health experts expect to see more Indian commercial surrogacy programs
in coming years. Dr. Indira Hinduja, a prominent fertility specialist
who was behind India's first test-tube baby two decades ago, receives
several surrogacy inquiries a month from couples overseas.
"People are accepting it," said Hinduja. "Earlier they used to be
ashamed but now they are becoming more broadminded."
But if commercial surrogacy keeps growing, some fear it could change
>from a medical necessity for infertile women to a convenience for the
rich.
"You can picture the wealthy couples of the West deciding that
pregnancy is just not worth the trouble anymore and the whole industry
will be farmed out," said Lantos.
Or, Lantos said, competition among clinics could lead to compromised
safety measures and "the clinic across the street offers it for 20
percent less and one in Bangladesh undercuts that and pretty soon
conditions get bad."
The industry is not regulated by the government. Health officials have
issued nonbinding ethical guidelines and called for legislation to
protect the surrogates and the children.
For now, the surrogate mothers in Anand seem as pleased with the
arrangement as the new parents.
"I know this isn't mine," said Jagrudi Sharma, 34, pointing to her
belly. "But I'm giving happiness to another couple. And it's great for
me."
2007 Dec 30