Oz citizens favour India for surrogate mothers

Surrogate pregnancy is fast becoming a booming industry in India as a result of slipshod regulations inexpensive medical care and the availability of cheap surrogate mothers because of financial compulsionsCommercial surrogacy has been legal in India since 2002 but large numbers of Australians are now going in for it here since for them the strengthening of the US dollar visu00e0vis their dollar has pushed the cost of buying a baby from the US to over Rs 1 crore approxwombs for rent Surrogate mothers are seen at a hospital in Anand Gujarat The hospitals clinic matches infertile couples with local women who act as surrogates Experts say commercial surrogacy is growing in India It was legalised in 2002 file picFor Rs 10 lakhOn the other hand a baby carried by an Indian surrogate mother can be bought for as little as Rs 10 lakh plus an extra Rs 35 lakh if the couple wish to use a Caucasian egg donor who is usually flown in from South AfricaIn the normal course surrogate parents do not meet the woman bearing the child or the donor who provided the eggs They are not allowed to attend the birth or meet any of the childs familyBaby for 5th timeThe Sydney Morning Herald quotes 34year old single mother Neelam Chauhan a Delhi suburbanite as admitting that she will soon give birth for a fifth time but only two of those babies are her ownChauhan says the main reason she has gone in for three surrogacies over the past five years is because of financial problems She was paid approx Rs 1 lakh for her first surrogate pregnancy which she used to pay off debts after a divorceHer second surrogacy fetched her almost three times that amount including a bonus that helped her buy a houseKids educationChauhan plans to use most of this years payment of Rs 375 lakh approx for the education of her two sons Pankaj 12 and Shivam 10Anoop Gupta who runs DelhiIVF the clinic handling Chauhans pregnancy says that increasingly Indian middleclass women are becoming surrogates to secure a better family lifestyleWe are getting a lot more walkin surrogates who are welleducated he says adding that he sometimes gets 20 emails from couples around the world inquiring about surrogacyNo official figures are available but it is estimated that hundreds of surrogate babies are being born each year in the countryOften ladies come in with their husbands to inquire about surrogacy saying they want the money to buy a car or do up their interiors Gupta saysHowever critics of Indias burgeoning surrogate industry say the practice exploits the poor and endangers the health of vulnerable women 30 Oz couplesWith an estimated 30 Australian couples presently pursuing surrogacy in India supporters of the scheme deny there is any exploitation of the countrys poorThese are not slum dwellers asserted Megan Sainsbury a spokeswoman for Australia India Surrogacy AdvocatesThey are middle class women who have the approval and support of their families They are not being forced into it None of us would ever exploit a person from a Third World country Sainsbury said recentlyWe are furious about this India has some of the strictest regulations regarding psychological testing in the world for surrogates and potential parents They do not accept people who are in it purely for the money or those who want to exploit someone less fortunate than themselvesAltruistic lawsNevertheless the Australian government is considering changes to altruistic surrogacy laws in the country which would make it obligatory for surrogates to live in the same jurisdiction as the intended parents failing which the parents will not be granted custodyLaws could also preclude exploitative arrangements with Third World countriesSource The Sydney Morning Herald