Few days back, I came across this documentary depicting a new source of income for Indian women, and this is based on the series of net searches made in a disturbed state of mind.
As I read about it, the major source of my anguish was that of the entire 25-35k $ charged, the surrogate mom receives only 7.5k to 10k $. In return, the poor woman, in some cases a widow or a divorcee, has to face the social trauma, and is expected to have no post-partum attachment or love for the kid simply because it is not genetically her own. Different religions have varying responses to this issue, most nations have different legislative provisions.
The articles on net call this a business, and the reason India is favoured because Indian women are non-alcoholic, non-smokers and are housewives!!(by that they imply that housewives are under less stress). Perhaps they forgot to consider that poverty, the cause that led Indian women towards surrogacy, in itself is a stressful condition. None of the articles mention maternal death rates in India, nor do they have statistics of whether the money so earned was truly spent on the surrogate mom's kids education as expected, or on her hubby's drinks. Have the women been informed about the side effects of chemicals they were given to make their bodies accept foreign cells? On a positive note, a mother calls her surrogate peer her angel, and one checked the baby's progress every week over phone, and wishes that surrogate mom attend the baby's 1st birthday.
The articles on net call this a business, and the reason India is favoured because Indian women are non-alcoholic, non-smokers and are housewives!!(by that they imply that housewives are under less stress). Perhaps they forgot to consider that poverty, the cause that led Indian women towards surrogacy, in itself is a stressful condition. None of the articles mention maternal death rates in India, nor do they have statistics of whether the money so earned was truly spent on the surrogate mom's kids education as expected, or on her hubby's drinks. Have the women been informed about the side effects of chemicals they were given to make their bodies accept foreign cells? On a positive note, a mother calls her surrogate peer her angel, and one checked the baby's progress every week over phone, and wishes that surrogate mom attend the baby's 1st birthday.
I recall a case of a woman in Jaipur bearing a foetus for a Japanese couple, the couple split in course of gestation, and neither the mother nor the father was ready to accept the child. Ultimately, the surrogate mother decided to raise the child as her own. This reinforces my opinion that the love for the child is not just because of the biological consanguinity but because of the time that parents spend with the child.
