Rent -a - Womb
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Jyoti Dave is pregnant, but when the 30-year-old gives birth in March the baby will not be taken home to bond with her other child, but will instead be handed over to an American couple unable to conceive.
For her trouble, the Indian surrogate mother will be paid. She won't say how much, but she says it's money she desperately needs to feed her poor family after an industrial accident left the family's only breadwinner unable to work.
"My husband lost his limbs working in the factory," Dave told Reuters. "We could not manage even a meal a day. That is when I decided to rent out my womb."
Surrogate motherhood is among the latest in a long list of roles being outsourced to India, where rent-a-womb services are far cheaper than in the West.
"In the U.S. a childless couple would have to spend anything up to $50,000," Gautam Allahbadia, a fertility specialist who helped a Singaporean couple obtain a child through an Indian surrogate last year, told Reuters.
"In India, it's done for $10,000-$12,000."
This sounds so sick to me. I can understand wanting a child and not being able to have your own biological child, but why not adopt? And why aren't we being our brother's keeper and assisting this poor family? No one should have to resort to such a desperate method in order to survive.
For her trouble, the Indian surrogate mother will be paid. She won't say how much, but she says it's money she desperately needs to feed her poor family after an industrial accident left the family's only breadwinner unable to work.
"My husband lost his limbs working in the factory," Dave told Reuters. "We could not manage even a meal a day. That is when I decided to rent out my womb."
Surrogate motherhood is among the latest in a long list of roles being outsourced to India, where rent-a-womb services are far cheaper than in the West.
"In the U.S. a childless couple would have to spend anything up to $50,000," Gautam Allahbadia, a fertility specialist who helped a Singaporean couple obtain a child through an Indian surrogate last year, told Reuters.
"In India, it's done for $10,000-$12,000."
This sounds so sick to me. I can understand wanting a child and not being able to have your own biological child, but why not adopt? And why aren't we being our brother's keeper and assisting this poor family? No one should have to resort to such a desperate method in order to survive.
I agree. This is evil, immoral and to top it off, exploitation of the poor (the poor we have a duty to care for rather than use their desperation for our own gratification.)
ReplyDeleteSick, sick.