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Couple buy child from India ‘baby factory'
Robert Mendick and Shekhar Bhatia06.05.09
Growing numbers of British couples are going to India to pay surrogate mothers to have their children, the Evening Standard reveals today.
One father from Ilford told how he and his wife had spent 13 years trying to have a baby, before succeeding through a surrogate mother in Mumbai at a cost of £50,000.
The sperm was donated by Bobby Bains, who is a Sikh, and the eggs by a Hindu woman while the surrogate mother who carried his daughter Daisy for nine months is Muslim.
"She is a little Miss India. She unites all of India," said Mr Bains, 45. "It took a Sikh, a Hindu and a Muslim to bring her into the world." The Indian surrogacy industry has become a multi-million-pound business and has prompted calls for it to be regulated.
There is a mounting ethical debate over paying Indian women to carry babies for couples from abroad.
Mr Bains and his wife Nikki, 44, who are trying for a second surrogate child, said that on a recent trip Mr Bains was shown a seventh-floor flat which housed 12 pregnant surrogate mothers.
Each mother is paid between £2,500 and £3,500 for carrying a child - equivalent to as much as 10 years' wages for some of the women on the clinic's books. One report suggests Indian women with fairer skin and higher IQs can charge more for donating eggs, fertilised in a test tube and then implanted in the surrogate mother.
Mr Bains said: "There are hundreds of clinics doing this in India. A clinic in Gujarat has 50 pregnancies. There is one baby born every week. Fifty girls are staying in surrogate houses. In one flat I went to there were pregnant women sitting around watching daytime Indian soaps.” The babies born in the Indian clinics also face being effectively stateless and parents can have long battles to get British passports for their children.
Mr Bains and his wife brought Daisy back to the UK in October after three months of legal wrangles.
Mr Bains has now set up a website to help other childless couples and says he typically receives one email a day from couples trying to navigate their way through India's surrogate mother industry.
He estimates that more than half the inquiries are from Europeans and about one third, or 100 a year, are from the UK. Of those about 90 per cent are Caucasians.
Last week, Mr Bains returned from India where he introduced a German couple to the Rotunda clinic in Mumbai, where Daisy was conceived.
The Standard is aware of a London couple who in the past few weeks have also had twins at another clinic in Anand in Gujarat province.
The father, who is still in India awaiting documentation to bring his twins home, declined to talk about his experiences when contacted by the Standard.
The couple are thought to be currently staying in Jaipur, awaiting the necessary immigration papers to bring the babies back to the UK. The Indian surrogacy boom effectively began in 2004 when Rhadha Patel, then aged 46, gave birth to surrogate twins for her daughter Lata Nagla, who also lives in Ilford.
Mrs Nagla's eggs were fertilised by her husband's sperm in a test tube and then implanted in her mother's womb.
The case, first highlighted by the Evening Standard, received worldwide attention and put the Akanksha clinic in Anand into the spotlight.
It is estimated that about 50 pregnant surrogate mothers are being looked after by the clinic at any one time.
The clinic charges around £15,000 for each surrogate baby born while it costs about £4,000 for each failed attempt. In all about 140 surrogate mothers give birth through the clinic each year.
Another clinic in Delhi arranged about 50 surrogate births last year — about half to Western couples.
Mr Bains claimed the price for a surrogate baby had doubled since 2005 when he and his wife first started trying — having given up hope of having a child in the UK because of a shortage of surrogate mothers. He added: “I always say to people this is going to cost you everything. That is the first thing people want to know: how much.”
Dr Gautam Allapadia, a fertility specialist at the Rotunda clinic, said: “The costs are substantially less than they would spend in developed countries like the US and the UK.
“There is no paperwork involved, the couples don't have to go through any lawyers, it's a clean issue, and there is no litigation.”
Vandana Sharma, chairwoman of the Women Protection League, said in a recent interview: “We are very concerned about the health of women who become surrogates.
“This is exploitation and I totally condemn surrogacy.”
Reader views (21)
I am going tomorrow with my husbands sperm. I could never afford this in the USA . I've been twice to India for infertilty treatment and for baroatric surg. Both paid out of our pockets . God bless these wonderful women for helping us to have a family
- Asinna, NYC usa
If I couldn't have children on my own, I wouldn't choose egg donors/surrogates. I understand that being a mother must be the must delightful thing for a woman to experience. But not every woman has born to be a mother, according to nature. Some are born to and have the luck or/and to find the right partner with whom to conceive a child. But if somehow she hasn't, it's not wrong. Enjoy life whether you are a mother or not.
- Yolanda V., Monterrey, Mexico
This is sad. There's an uproar in most western countries about overpopulation (not true) and yet some couples that can't have children "try for 14 years" without success instead of simply adopting one in need of a loving family.
- Ms. Normandy, Russia
I am a gynecologist in India and we run one of India's largest IVF group . we have success rate in the range of 50 % . We primarily do IVF work in Lilavati hospital mumbai which is one of the leading corporate hospitals in india . We also help patients in undergoing surrogacy . However this is just 5 % of our work . Also majority that is nearly 90 % of surrogacy work is done for Indian parents residing within India . This is in contrary to the general impression in the west that the foriegn patients are the main benificiaries of the easy availability of surrogate services in India .
I am also the vice president of the Indian society for assisted reproduction which respresents nearly 300 IVF clinics in the country . unlike the clinics stated in your article, whose main objective is to target surrogacies from abroad , majority of us remaining IVF units view the surrogate program as a god send alternative to our patients who cant bear there own child ; with additional benifit to patients from abroad . We also take special care of patients coming from abroad and see to it that we dont exploit foriegn patients . Our IVF charges are US $ 500 more than what we charge the Indian patients( normal IVF charge is US $ 3000 including medication) . Our suurogate charges are US $ 6 to 7000 which goes directly to the surrogate and towards the antenatal care of pregnancy and delivery .
It is very important to maintain transparency in this procedure.Our Reputation after all is at stake!
- Dr Hrishikesh Pai Gynecologist And Infertility Specialist Lilavati Hospital, Mumbai India
I wonder if some of the people who have written in have actually read this article. It is British passport holders, British caucasian couples who are going to India to conceive their babies. What has immigration got to do with it? I agree with all the comments regarding the overwhelming number of children worldwide who need caring loving homes. Some people cannot have children for a reason. Nature did not intend for them to have these children and maybe their path is to adopt or foster.
- Maya, London
Mr Peter Noterfed,
I am not sure if you read the article. The surrogate mothers are not immigrating to the UK, they have the babies in India, and the parents take the baby. The only person immigrating is the baby so to speak.
- Vb, London
I have some experience of surrogacy and this route is a legal nightmare and will end up costing tens of thousands of pounds in legal fees. Every international surrogacy now has to go through the high court in London. As long as you are aware when entering into the agreement then it is no problem. There is a massive demand for this service and the laws need updating quickly.
- Mrs Jeff, London
This is utter madness. Aren't there enough Indian orphans desperate for loving parents? And these people have to have one born specially for them? Please.
- Paulina Smid, London
Looks like some kind of immigration ticket to the UK for the surrogate mothers.
- Peter Noterfed, Paris, France
What a great idea, everyones a winner. You can't beat having a new baby in the house to cheer everyone up.
- Onein10, Salford, UK
Yet another example of why laws urgently need to be tightened on who comes to the Country. If no British passport was given to the child it would end in a heartbeat. Try adopting for pities sake.
- Roger, Surrey
Outsourcing gone mad!!!
- Sean, London, UK
That adds new meaning to the term BPO - Baby process outsourcing.
- Glen, london
I concur wholeheartedly with Shandra and Real. This is disgusting on every level and the people involved should learn to accept that some people are just not meant to have children.
- Sarah Bradshaw, Enfield, Middx
Good business to cheat the peoples. New opportunities to make new business to multiply your money. Please care for the health. Health is wealth. Yes in poor countries you have such good business. Good mother for good childrens.
Very surprising dealting where “There is no paperwork involved, the couples don't have to go through any lawyers, it's a clean issue, and there is no litigation.”
God Helps us.
- Ma Sular, London
EDITED by admin @ 12.22pm on May 6 2009
Religious/Racial
- Eddie, London
sounds like it will become a popular solution for the growing infertility problems of the west. and a big business in India.
- Morning Dew, London
I'm sorry this makes me feel ill. What sort of people would exploit women in this way (and please don't tell me the women are being paid - it's still exploitation) for their own selfish ends. Worse than prostitution. Yuck.
- Shandra, London UK
This is exploitation and I totally condemn surrogacy.
I do see the moral dilemma. I agree 100% with the above comment ending the story. As the mother of the child is not a national of britain why are we allowing these market stall babies in?
- Gary, London UK
Why can't these greedy selfish people adopt / foster a child in need? Their self obsession and insistence on recreating their own genes already indicates a poor parenting ability in my opinion.
- Real, London
I have heard it all now; lazy childbirth, it sounds like the internet trouble shooters on BT; get a problem; and you end up in India.
- Mickyinlondon, london
