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Investigation: Surrogate baby delivered every 48 hours
Shekhar Bhatia20 May 2009
An Evening Standard investigation today exposes the boom in Indian surrogate babies for childless Western couples.
One leading obstetrician at a Mumbai hospital says she delivers on average one baby to a British couple every 48 hours.
One London couple who have taken advantage of India's “baby factories” told the Standard of their joy at having twins.
Louis and Freya are the genetic offspring of Chris and Susan Morrison but were carried in the womb of a Gujarati woman who was paid £8,000.
The case will inevitably raise questions over the relative ease with which childless couples can go to India to have surrogate babies — and could also put pressure on British authorities to relax laws which outlaw commercial surrogacy. Today's case also raises the prospect of wealthy women, who do not wish to go through the inconvenience or pain of childbirth, travelling to India to have their eggs implanted in the wombs of Indian women.
Dr Anita Soni, a leading obstetrician and gynaecologist working at one of Mumbai's top hospitals, said: “I deliver babies from Indian women for British couples at the rate of more than 15 a month.”
Dr Soni added: “For these surrogate mothers that amount of money is life-changing. It helps them set up a home, get their daughters married or something like that. There is absolutely no exploitation of these women. It is really big money. It is a jackpot.
“They go through a little bit of emotional trauma, but then they go back home and they realise they have done it for a good cause. I help more white couples than Indians, who are still sceptical about things. English couples come here much more in numbers.”
Dr Soni spoke minutes before entering the delivery room at the Hiranandani Hospital where a 28-year-old Indian woman was giving birth to twins for another British couple.
The hospital delivers the surrogate babies of women sent there by three clinics in Mumbai — the Rotunda Clinic, Surrogacy India and Gynae World.
There are more clinics in Delhi and elsewhere in India including in Gujarat province where the Morrisons paid a total of £25,000, including hospital fees, for a surrogate to have their twins.
The Morrisons, from East Ham, had given up all hope of having children until turning to India. On 1 March surrogate mother Vimla gave birth to Freya and Louis after being implanted with Susan's eggs fertilised by Chris's sperm.
Susan, speaking from Mumbai where the family are waiting for UK immigration to give them the all-clear to return to London, told the Standard: “It's a miracle. We have got two beautiful babies — a boy and a girl. There were times when I thought this would never happen.”
The Morrisons used the interview with the Standard to give hope to other childless couples. But they also took a sideswipe at Britain's “bureaucratic” surrogacy laws which outlaw commercial deals.
Susan, 37, a former teacher who now works for a children's charity, said: “Because of the complications surrounding surrogacy, Britain regards our children as Indian, while India happily accepts that they are as British as I am.
“It is a complete nightmare after nightmare. You go through so much trouble to have your children and then run into all the legal complications.
“We have not done anything wrong. The woman in Gujarat who carried our twins has been paid well and is happy and we regard her now as part of our family.”
Chris, 40, a marketing analyst, added: “I don't understand why in Britain you can't enter into a commercial surrogacy arrangement. The law needs looking at to save people from all the heartache and trouble of having to go to a foreign country.
“There must be many couples like us having trouble becoming parents who might want to try surrogacy, but find the red tape and hassle too much.
“We are a pretty determined couple , but it has been a very, very long and tough road. The world is ever changing and the internet has opened up so many new avenues. The Government needs to think about that.”
Dr Gauri Gupta of the Rotunda Clinic, who implants embryos in Indian surrogates before they go into the care of Dr Soni, said: “Surrogacy is spreading at a very fast pace here and there have been very few complaints. It is a very helpful way for people who could not have children before to become parents and we are seeing more and more couples from the UK every day. Our email inquiry box is full of messages from people from all over the West.”
Reader views (8)
what a surprise that most of the negative comments are from ignorant males. as for susanna, you should be ashamed writing that, i bet you dont have fertility issues. you have no idea what these woman ( on both sides) are going through.
just a bunch of ignorant self righteous idiots.
- Sarah Taylor, cheshire uk, 03/06/2009 16:04
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What i'd like to know is what happens if the kids are denied visa to UK? Will the parents move to Mumbai, India to raise them there?
By going abroad, the Morrisons did not have to abide by UK laws. Now that they have their kids, why should these two kids be given visa to the UK?
How much of the £8,000 did the surrogate mother actually see? The comment "I want her to get attached" I felt was rather nasty and entirely uncalled for. In my opinion the Morrisons have taken advantage of someone in poverty. People in the slums have been raising families for years so raising these two babies is not a matter of cost or affordability.
- Dave Kelly, London, England, 26/05/2009 16:03
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I 100% agree with Susanna's comment. Indians are being exploited to do the hard graft that the whites don't want to as they've been brainwashed into a slave mentality to the white people and don't question the morality of what they're doing. Westerners take advantage of their desperation for sustenance and the need to exist for their own ends, rather then consider them on an equal footing,which India wants to be viewed on.
Even though the British Empire has long since been disbandied, some elements still remain.
- Dave, London, UK, 21/05/2009 11:45
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The Morrisons have done an incredibly brave and difficult thing . Not just the surrogacy but the boldness of appearing on a front page to raise awareness of such a hugely diificult topic . Infertility has recently been given a stress point reading akin to cancer or bereavement and remains one of the most difficult life challenges a person can face . To report the option of surrogacy as "raising the prospect of wealthy women who do not wish to go through the inconvenience of childbirth " is insensitive and frankly ridiculous . Infertility is not a lifestyle choice but a deeply sad , painful and lonely medical fact faced by one in six people and rising .Until a person has experienced it for themselves they cannot know just how hard a situation it is .
Anya Sizer fertility coach and mother of two IVF children
- Anya Sizer, London, 21/05/2009 10:28
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I am in the process of doing surrogacy in India and there is nothing easy about it, it's a heartbreaking process and for people like me who are having to resort to this have already been through the mill and back.
It's a tough decision and not helped by the lack of support from our own government.
I've been trying to start a family for 12 years and this option is a final chance.
The money that is given to the surrogates really is life changing and until you've been to India yourself you don't realize just how much.
For those who can so easily criticize us for doing this are just plain ignorant. Maybe the journalist who wrote this should also have done some more research into how we come to be in this situation and the what we have to go through. Infitility is something I don't wish on anyone and we're not all too proud to carry our own babies given the chance.
- Dona, yorkshire uk, 21/05/2009 07:43
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We need to ask ourselves why commercial surrogacy is considered an act of 'exploitation' and is illegal in Britain, whereas in India the same human exploitation is rationalised by providing the surrogate mother with a financial incentive. If paying a woman 8000 pounds is enough to soothe the Morrisons' conscience, then this says a lot about their values - Why is it ok to pay a brown woman in a far-off country to sell her womb, when the same is seen as a human rights violation against a white woman in Britain? I am outraged that this story has been told in a way that blatantly ignores the racist double-standard involved here. Unfortunately, India remains a colony ripe for British exploitation - Needless to say, this is unacceptable.
- Susanna Larsson, London, UK, 20/05/2009 23:23
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We are a laughing stock, people just abuse this country,because clowns run it. We do we bother having border control. These babies are not flesh and blood ban them and lock up the parents for abuse and being unfit humans
- Peter Mills, 3rd world Brtain, 20/05/2009 15:41
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So did this happy couple pay the woman twice the amount for having two? If so, they've gotten a freebee, and if not, then they've commodified and outsourced the entire proccess, to which an economic scale can be attached. Surely there will be others who can undercut the price, offer coupons, customer loyalty accounts and so forth.
The degree of exploitation inherent to the whole thing is bottomless. India remains a colony.
- Andrew Ford Lyons, London, 20/05/2009 13:05
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