The state of Gujarat in India is renowned for people with an entrepreneurial streak. The city of Anand in Gujarat, which gave India Amul, the country’s best-known brand of butter, has now become the last stop for many childless couples at home and abroad, after its first surrogate baby five years ago.  

Latest outsourced service

Surrogate motherhood  is among the latest in a long list of roles being outsourced to India as it is far cheaper than in the West.  A surrogate in India is generally paid about 250,000-400,000 rupees ($4,000-$8,000), a huge sum of money in a country where many live on less than $2 a day. Against this in the United States hiring a surrogate can take months and cost up to $100,000. Total cost works out just $25,000 in India, including all medical bills, payment to the surrogate, and air and hotel accommodations for two trips to India. For desperate couples, it is an answer to their prayers.  

Mothers bound by contract  

After the children are born, they will be taken back either to USA or UK or to any other destination abroad and none of these women will have any claim on the children they will give birth to. They are bound by contract in which they get paid at a negotiated rate for carrying the child born out of the serum of the foreign father.  

Under guidelines issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research, surrogate mothers sign away their rights to any children. A surrogate’s name is not even on the birth certificate. This eases the process of taking the baby out of the country.

In traditional surrogacy the surrogate mother is artificially inseminated with the sperm of the intended father or sperm from a donor. In gestational surrogacy an already-fertilized embryo from the biological parents' or donors is transferred to the womb of the surrogate mother.

Is rent-a-womb ethical?  

Commercial surrogacy, which is banned in some states in the US and some European countries, was legalized in India in 2002. But this is an area fraught with ethical and legal uncertainties. Critics argue that the ease with which relatively rich foreigners are able to “rent” the wombs of poor Indians amounts to exploitation. Although the government is actively promoting India as a medical tourism destination, what some see as an exchange of money for babies has made many uncomfortable.