New Indian Outsourcing Service: Wombs-For-Rent

December 30, 2007 8:14 a.m. EST

Topics: Offbeat
Anand, India (AHN) - After call centers and other backroom operations, India has developed a unique outsourcing service: wombs for rent.

In a small clinic at Kaival Hospital in Anand, infertile couples worldwide could be matched with local Indian women who could deliver their babies at a cost of around $10,000.

The fee already includes the entire procedure, including fertilization, medical expenses and the fee for the surrogate mother.

About 40 babies have been delivered through "outsourced pregnancies," and about 50 more women are conceiving children of couples from the U.S., Britain, Taiwan and other countries. The women are impregnated in-vitro with the egg and sperm of couples unable to conceive on their own.

India legalized commercial surrogacy in 2002. Although commissioning baby makers is legal in many countries, including the U.S., desperate couples go to India given its wide labor pool working who can be commissioned at relatively low rates.

Of the $10,000 fee, the surrogate mothers often get between $4,000 and $6,000, which is often equivalent to about 15 years' salary.

Dr. Nayna Patel, who operates the clinic, said she is not exploiting the women and defends her work is meaningful for everyone involved.

She said she only accepts couples with serious fertility issues, like survivors of uterine cancer. The surrogate mothers should be between 18 and 45 years, in good medical shape and have at least one child of their own.

Critics, however, fear that the growing commercial surrogacy may change from a medical necessity for infertile women to a convenience for the rich, who cannot be bothered with carrying a child for the nine-month stretch.