'Rent-a-Womb' Surrogacy Faces Ban in India

'Rent-a-Womb' Surrogacy Faces Ban in India

India's government will ban foreigners from using surrogate mothers in the country, a move likely to hit the booming commercial surrogacy industry.

Ranks of childless foreign couples have flocked to the country in recent years looking for a low-cost, legal and simple route to parenthood.

Health industry estimates put the size of India’s surrogacy business at nine billion rupees ($138 million) and growing at 20 per cent a year.

But critics have said a lack of legislation governing surrogacy encourages “rent-a-womb” exploitation of young, poor Indian women.

In an affidavit to the Supreme Court today, the government said it “does not support commercial surrogacy”.

“No foreigners can avail surrogacy services in India,” it told the court, which is hearing a petition regarding the industry, adding that surrogacy would be available “only for Indian couples”.

Thousands of infertile couples, many from overseas, hire the wombs of Indian women to carry their embryos through to birth.

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This is a long overdue initiative by the Indian government.

People are not entitled to have children just because they have a couple of thousand dollars available and can hire a young woman relatively inexpensively to carry a child to term for them.

I'm actually surprised India let it go on for as long as they did.

Surprisingly enough Russia has a more enlightened policy then we do on this surrogacy business. All persons involved have no legal rights to the children born through these arrangements, no matter how much money exchanges hands.  So there is no incentive to conduct these transactions financial or otherwise.

We see the potential for disaster inherent in these arrangements starting with the Baby M case and right up to the present day with Sherri Shepherd (former host of the View) trying to negative a surrogate contract because her husband filed for divorce before the child was even born to the surrogate...

Let's just say no as India is now doing.