Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Wombs for Rent- Is childbirth being outsource?

I came across this morning a show in television tackles about surrogacy or surrogate motherhood which is growing in India. There are couples who are unable to conceive on their own and desperate to have their own baby. If they can afford to spend the cost for in-vitro fertilisation and spending another for hiring a surrogate mother. This is how it works, the women (willing surrogate mothers)are impregnated in-vitro with the egg and sperm of couples unable to conceive on their own. The couples who hires the surrogate mothers will cover all the expenses from pregnany until the delivery of the baby.

The couple they interviewed in the show comes from United States, they desperately wants a baby, they can't find a surrogate mother here in the States. It was emotionally and financially exhausting for them. Then they searched on the Internet, they found a site who caters to their need, "wombs for rent" which is located in India. It's so interesting that its a legal business there. A lot of women doing this job out of poverty, exploited to the extent of willingness to undergo the hardships, pain and risks of labor.

They also interviewed the willing surrogate mother from India. The woman said she will buy a house the money she receives from the American couple who's child she's carrying. It would have taken her more than 10 years to earn that on her maid month's salary of $25. Her own 3 children were delivered at home and said she never visited a doctor during those pregnancies. Very different now that her womb is being rent, with doctors, with complete medicines and vitamins, being more careful now than her own pregnancy before.