International Rent-a-Womb: The Outsourcing of Baby-Making
"My husband lost his limbs working in the factory," Jyoti Dave, a surrogate mother in India, told Reuters. "We could not manage even a meal a day. That is when I decided to rent out my womb."
Commercial surrogacy is nothing new. In the U.S., where it is legal in many states, companies such as Growing Generations offer up to US$25,000 to surrogates while charging couples between US$30,000 and US$45,000 per child.
Today rent-a-womb has gone international. Its headquarters
are in India, where surrogate mothers can earn US$5,000 to US$7,000 per birth — income equivalent to a decade's worth of a rural wages for a woman.
These surrogates offer their services to an international clientele hailing from Italy, Singapore, Sweden and other wealthy countries. Most of these couples turn to surrogacy after multiple failed in-vitro fertilizations or repeated miscarriages. It's no surprise India appeals to medical tourists; it offers affordable service, highly qualified doctors, and fewer legal hurdles than found in other countries.
Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman is among critics of commercial surrogacy who are disturbed by the idea of the human body as a commodity. Others are uneasy about the ability of the wealthy to essentially rent wombs from the poor.
Many participants in international surrogacy, however, argue that they are helping those in financial desperation. "How else will us uneducated women earn this kind of money," one surrogate mother explained to Christian Science Monitor, "without doing anything immoral?"
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Limits to free markets?
I've heard of surrogate mothers before and I am fully in support of it because it can bring joy (and a kid) to infertile couples, but rent-a-wombs? Reading this makes me wonder if anything is sacred from free markets. I mean, it even strikes me as something Huxley would have put into his dystopian novel Brave New World.
What worries me is the possible exploitation of these impoverished women. Pregnancy is not only physically taxing, but emotionally taxing as well. Reading that "on some contracts, the thumbprint of an illiterate surrogate stands out against the clients’ signatures," does not inspire confidence that these surrogate signers were completely aware of the conditions that they were entering themselves into.
At the same time, however, I realize that some women hope to use the money they receive (though a significantly less amount than surrogate pregnancies in the Western world would receive) to help their own children. One woman used it to "buy a heart operation for her son." The money-making alternatives for women may not be as a lucrative as womb renting, but in terms of financial empowerment for these women, I personally prefer a different method, such as microlending and microfinance.
Nobody can judge
Nobody can judge nobody.
Every honest way to make someone happy should be valid.
I love children, but I do not have emotional structure to raise one (I keep thinking on how shallow and violent is this world... if my grandchildren will have water...).
I am graduated, have couple rich fiancees standing by and I would love to rent my womb just for the experience of the 9 months and breast feeding.
Anyone interested can contact me.
I am very healthy!
God bless you all!
P
We don't blink an eye when a
We don't blink an eye when a nice American girl rents her womb for $25,000 to $100,000 to wealthy parents. Why is it Huxley-esque for poor Americans and poor others to finally afford a way to have a child of their dreams and for some Indian girl/woman to fulfill some of her dreams.
Commercialisation
Every opportunity that new technologies offer, quickly gets a dark side when people turn it into commercial abuse/exploitation. While this evolution in medical care can offer great results for those who need it, it can exploit young vulnerable girls to money.
Surrogacy helps infertile couples build a family, its not wrong
Honestly, I agree with the surrogate mother's opinion.
They are earning money from a way which does not involve prostitution or other services, and they are actually helping for the happiness of other couples. As long as they are not exploited, I believe this is a way for them to be relatively safe from the hard living conditions in their countries.
There are multiple agency websites currently focusing on helping the couples to find the right people to carry their children. For instance this agency helps couples in finding surrogate mothers, this is to assure that the surrogate mother is safe medically, the couple is safe legally. They even focus on surrogacy options for gay couples on this website.
This is seen as a professional work in the foreign countries, since you can feed people there, illegal activities drop and they actually help building families. I believe there is nothing unethical here.
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