Commercial surrogacy is estimated to be worth
more than $1bn a year in India. While pregnant, some surrogate mothers live in
dormitories - which critics call baby factories. They give childless couples
the family they have longed for, but what is it like for the women who carry
someone else's child for money?
"In India families are close. You are ready
to do anything for your children," says 28-year-old Vasanti. "To see
my children get everything I ever dreamt of, that's why I have become a
surrogate." Vasanti is pregnant, but not with her own child - she is
carrying a Japanese couple's baby. For this she will be paid $8,000 (£4,967),
enough to build a new house and send her own two children, aged five and seven,
to an English-speaking school - something she never thought was possible. "I'm
happy from the bottom of my heart," says Vasanti. She was implanted with
their embryo in the small city of Anand in Gujarat and will spend the next nine
months living in a nearby dormitory with about 100 other surrogate mothers, all
patients of Dr Nayna Patel.
There are up to 10 surrogate mothers in each
room. The women have their meals and vitamins delivered to them and are
encouraged to rest. Vasanti, however, cannot help feeling restless.
"At night I wander around because I can't
sleep. As my tummy is getting bigger and the baby is growing I am getting
really bored," says Vasanti. "Now I want to go home really soon to be
with my children and my husband."
The rules of the house forbid the women from
having sex during the pregnancy, and emphasize that neither the doctor nor the
hospital, nor the couple whose baby it is, are responsible for any
complications.
The rules of the surrogacy house
·
It is
compulsory for the surrogate mothers to live in the house
·
Surrogates
are not allowed to have marital relations during the pregnancy
·
The couple,
hospital or doctor are not responsible for any risks or complications
·
The
surrogate house has a matron who looks after the women and gives them any
medication
·
Sunday is
the designated family day when the women's husbands and children can visit
·
Women can be
a surrogate up to three times
·
Some of the
women are employed by couples after the birth to look after the child or even
wet nurse them while they remain in India sorting out the paperwork and
immigration visas required to take the baby home
If the mother is bearing twins she receives a
higher fee - $10,000. If she miscarries within three months, she receives $600.
The couples are charged around $28,000 for a pregnancy that leads to a
successful birth. Dr Patel,
who runs the IVF clinic and the dormitory and delivers the babies, acknowledges
that many people find her work offensive. "I have
faced criticism. I am facing it and I will be facing it, because this,
according to many, is a controversial subject," she says.
"There are a lot of allegations that this is just
a business, this is just baby-selling, a baby-making factory, and all these
phrases used to hurt."
Some say that the surrogates are being exploited, but
Patel argues that the worlds of big business, glamour and politics are harsher.
"I feel that each and every person in this
society is using one or the other person," Patel says. In her opinion, the
mothers are getting a fair deal. "These surrogates are doing the physical
work, agreed, and they are being compensated for that. They know that there is
no gain without pain," she says.
While they stay in the surrogate house, Patel says the
women are taught new skills such as embroidery so that they can earn a living
after they leave. And the money they earn is huge by local standards. Vasanti's
payment, which she receives in installments, dwarfs her husband Ashok's monthly
income of about $40 a month.
Some mothers come back again after giving birth once.
Three times is the maximum Patel allows. There are a number of reasons why
India is "the surrogacy hub of the world", she says. Good medical
technology is available and the cost is comparatively low. But the legal
situation is also favorable, Patel argues. "The surrogate has no right
over the baby or no duties towards the baby, so that makes it easier. Whereas
in the Western world... the birth mother is considered as the mother and the
birth certificate will have her name."
Not having the surrogate's name on the birth
certificate can make it harder for the children to find out about the surrogate
mother who gave birth to them if one day they want to gain an understanding of
their past.
India has one third of the world's poorest people and
critics argue that poverty is a major factor in the women's decision to become
a surrogate. "There are… many needy females in India," says Patel.
"The food, shelter, clothing and medicine, healthcare is not free for all
in India. People have to fend for themselves."
Patel says she encourages the women to use their
earnings wisely. Vasanti and her husband are building a new home. "The
house I live in at the moment is a rented house, this one will be much
better," says Ashok. "My parents will be pleased that their son and
his wife have managed to build a house. Our status in society will go up, which
will be a good thing."
But the new house comes at a price. It will not be
built in the same area as their old one, because of hostility from neighbors.
"If you are at home then everyone knows that we
are doing surrogacy, that this is a test tube baby, and they use bad language.
So then we can't stay there safely," says Vasanti. As she nears her due
date, Vasanti becomes more anxious about the birth. "I don't know anything
about whether my couple will come and take my baby straight away, or if it will
stay with me for 10, 15 days, 20 days. I might not even get to see it,"
she says. Vasanti is moved to hospital and after a protracted labor, Patel
decides to give her a caesarean section. It's a boy - usually a cause for
celebration in India, but Vasanti is concerned that the Japanese couple had
originally wanted a girl. The baby is taken directly to a neonatal hospital
where his parents will be able to collect him and take him to Japan. Vasanti is
tearful as she remembers the moment she caught a glimpse of him. "I saw
him when I had my caesarean. I saw my son, but then they took him straight
away. I must have seen him for five seconds, so I saw that he was living. "The
couple wanted a girl and it's a boy. It's good whether it's a boy or a girl.
She's got a child at least."
As the tiny baby boy she has carried
for the past nine months starts his new life, Vasanti is beginning hers. She
lives in her new house with her family and her children attend an
English-speaking school. "My children are growing day by day and we want a
good future," says Vasanti. "That's why we did this, and not in my
entire life do I want my daughter to be a surrogate mother."
((http://www.bbc.com/))
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