NationStates Jolt Archive

This has now become a major industry in a city called Anand in India. It used to be there in a minor way before but it has now become full-blown. In most of the countries the biological mother has rights over the child. But India has enacted a law (within months the congress govt was sworn in and without much debate....indicating that probably money was paid to all parties by lobbyists) which legalizes the pre-birth womb-renting contract.

This has now become a business. I find it sad and troubling that money would be the driving factor behind this.

Is this "immoral"? or is it just the way things are going to be?

In the future, would people start doing this just to avoid the pains of pregnancy and loss of money etc by the unproductive period etc ?


http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/248727.html
Childless Asian and British couples are rushing to Anand in Gujarat as the city famous for its thriving dairy industry is fast becoming a hub for outsourcing surrogacy.

Couples from the UK, desperate for children, are making a beeline to a tiny infertility clinic in Anand to engage Indian women to give birth to their babies.

For 3,000 pounds they can rent a womb for nine months, go home, then when the woman gives birth return to take the child away, The Mail newspaper reported.

The Akanksha clinic, run by infertility expert Dr Nayna Patel, is pioneering the outsourcing of pregnancy. It is at the forefront of a booming trade in "reproductive tourism" in India, where there is a more relaxed attitude to paying women for pregnancy, a practice banned in many other countries, the report said.

"By some estimates, Indian surrogacy is already a 250 million pounds a year business, and it's growing rapidly," it said.

Dr Patel told the newspaper that she has more than 50 foreign couples from Britain, America, Europe, the Middle East and even Africa and 45 surrogate mothers on her books.

For the surrogate, the money they earn for the service will transform their lives, allowing them to buy a house for the first time or provide an education for their own children.

Yet in order to make such money, many have to lie to their families and friends, telling them they are studying or working away from home, the report said.

47-year-old Patel said "at first, the couples we helped were Indian, but now they come from all over the world, including Britain.

If there's one thing India can do well, it's having babies.

If the women REALLY do want to do this, then I'm fine with it, but...

Wouldn't it make more sense to adopt the children already in existence?

If the women REALLY do want to do this, then I'm fine with it, but...

Wouldn't it make more sense to adopt the children already in existence?

Agreed. It seems silly to do this when you can adopt, but if people absolutely want their DNA to be included in the child for some reason... *shrugs*

If the women REALLY do want to do this, then I'm fine with it, but...

Wouldn't it make more sense to adopt the children already in existence?

One person's "sense" is another person's "meh." Next thing you'll be asking professional athletes to stop trying to chemically enhance their performance, or asking teenagers to be cheerful and optimistic.

Adoption would certainly be preferable but apparently there's enough demand for surrogate services to have generated a demand in India.

In a perfect world, there'd be no reason to worry about surrogacy. If one consenting adult wants to volunteer to gestate a fetus for another consenting adult (or adults), then that would be for the parties involved to decide (and their doctors, I suppose).

In the real world, however, this is all too often a way that the bodies of poor women are being exploited.

It's basically the same problem as prostitution in many regions. Women turn to prostitution because they are desperately poor and denied any other options, making them perfect targets for exploitation by anybody who has the money to buy them.

Where does this leave us?

Well, I certainly don't think surrogacy is automatically a bad idea. But I also think everybody ought to be pretty fucking skeptical when they hear about shit like "reproductive tourism." Let's not bullshit around about how these women are "free to choose" and all that crap, because I think we all know precisely how free a person really is if 3,000 pounds is enough to convince them to rent out their womb to total strangers.

In a perfect world, there'd be no reason to worry about surrogacy. If one consenting adult wants to volunteer to gestate a fetus for another consenting adult (or adults), then that would be for the parties involved to decide (and their doctors, I suppose).

In the real world, however, this is all too often a way that the bodies of poor women are being exploited.

It's basically the same problem as prostitution in many regions. Women turn to prostitution because they are desperately poor and denied any other options, making them perfect targets for exploitation by anybody who has the money to buy them.

Where does this leave us?

Well, I certainly don't think surrogacy is automatically a bad idea. But I also think everybody ought to be pretty fucking skeptical when they hear about shit like "reproductive tourism." Let's not bullshit around about how these women are "free to choose" and all that crap, because I think we all know precisely how free a person really is if 3,000 pounds is enough to convince them to rent out their womb to total strangers.


Can not the same be said for really any high demanding low pay job? Many jobs, and many positions are exploitive, or have the potential to be.

Can not the same be said for really any high demanding low pay job? Many jobs, and many positions are exploitive, or have the potential to be.
Absolutely. Hence why I mention prostitution.

There's no inherent reason why prostitution needs to be exploitative. There's no reason why working in a factory has to mean working in a sweat shop. There's no reason why offering to carry somebody else's fetus has to be an exploitative relationship.

But we all know that these things end up being exploitative all too often. Knowing that they don't have to be should not distract us from dealing with the sad situations when they are.