Indian surrogate mothers making news

Here:

http://www.marieclaire.com/world/art...omb-rent-india

I ran across this article today and don't know what I'm feeling about it yet. On one hand it feels tremendously exploitive and on the other it feels like the women are ok with it, making the money involved to support their lives/ making others happy...and if that is truly the case, then I feel they should be paid equivalent to those here in America. Carrying a child and going through the whole ordeal is huge on so many levels IMHO.

I don't know why but I had the impression that the majority of women in India were quite conservative and that their husbands would never agree to such an arrangement. I find it hard to believe that single young Indian women would ever willingly do this as it would hamper future wedding arrangements- correct? Perhaps I am very naive. I do get that poverty sets up the foundation for many things to build upon. I also felt the article made it sound pretty cold by doing an out-sourcing comparison (like a computer business and whatnot).

Is this a valid place for sharing feelings/information on the topic or is it too hot a topic? It certainly is not my intention to start any flames- simply wishing to understand perspectives from people who may wish to share.
I feel everyone has a divine right to their feelings so no flames from me.

***(I have beloved adopted niece and nephew from Korea, friends who have gone thru all the in vitro procedures but no personal dealings with surrogacy)

You are quite right.. atleast i havent heard about such news .. except for some hindi bollywood movies. Might be happening but atleast not at this scale.

'outsourcing' ha become a joke phrase. Last week we had a thread about 'outsourcing' care for elderly, this week its mother surrogacy

Umm, yes... it was published in MarieClaire, you say? Yes.

I don't know what to make of it, nor do I know anything about its legal status in other countries. From the article, it seems to be legal in USA, but six times the price.

surrogate mothers are absolutely legal in the US and not looked upon as anything negative. quite the opposite. there have been cases of the women not wanting to give up the babies that have been "paid for", but that's another story.

the couple that pays for the baby usually pays the surrogate mother's medical expenses throughout the pregnancy. I've read stories about the surrogate mothers -- they feel they are providing a very kind and compassionate service for women who can not have children. I've read about sisters who carry their sister's child.

but instead of "outsourcing a womb", I would think westerners would also want to adopt Indian babies. Americans adopt many children from Russia, Korea, China, and Guatamala, so I wonder if there are Indian adoption opportunities.

And mothers who carry their daughters babies.

Yeah- icky source, huh? Marie Claire
It was on front page of msn.com..lately all news seems more and more like celeb fluff or the most heinous violence so I seldom read it or newspapers/TV but this caught my eye as it seemed kinda off the wall for some reason and it was about India.

The term outsourcing seems so cold when it is referring to human lives rather than say, a computer business...but I suppose when all is boiled down everything is business of one nature or the other.

I too feel there are so many kids already born that could use a loving environment but each to their own for what is desired.

We have in Mpls an Indian adoption group that meets and comes to many Indian concerts/functions so yes, there is Indian adoption available out there.

Adoption in contemporary times comes with many interesting sticky legal and health issues it must be noted..

One of my sons swim class teachers is a surrogate mom to be. This has to be one of the most selfless acts I can think of.
My former neighbors adopted an Indian girl. I was surprised they were able to do it, considering they were a lesbian couple. It was interesting how both of them were pretty 'butch' while the daughter was the quintessential girly girl, all about barbies and cute little outfits.

i had read about the surragacy a few weeks back and one of the primary issues raised is that there are so many adoptable (healthy and cute) indian children, that the energy would be better spent in that arena before procreating new ones. we don't really need any more people population. the other issue is all of the female fetuses that are aborted. how about adopting some of those instead of aborting them? i've considered adopting a girl child or two from india. sadly, there are so many of them that are unwanted.

Surrogate mother phenomenon is going on for quite a while. I have watched atleast 2/3 news channel reports about this fact and atleast two commercial bollywood movies have also been made on this subject featuring mainstream bollywood actors. The movies are "chori chori chupke chupke" and "Filhaal" if anybody wants the names.

Most of surrogate mothers are married hailing from urban poor families with full support from their husbands to make a quick buck. Why urban poor? Because the people around are all immigrants flocking to cities for money and they are conditioned to not look down upon any means of making money. Yes, it will be rare for any unmarried girl to offer surrogacy.

Then some married women in joint families do it for their relatives out of their own volition or coerced by family but all covered up in garb of helping a family member.

This actually varies from state to state. In some states, surrogacy for money (as distinct from carrying a child for a relative) isn't legal.

Indeed! My cousin's daugher adopted an infamt girl from Tamil Nadu some years ago; I was sent her high school graduation photo a couple of years ago and she is absolutely gorgeous! I wish I could be in touch with her, but since her grandma (my elder cousin) died, I have lost track of her.

here is link to the article


http://www.azcentral.com/news/articl...urrogates.html

How dreary, and I suppose this will be the stuff of many made for TV movies to come...

some interesting questions (before actually allwowing this to go on)would have been:

1. What is the level of attachment to an unborn child in India (my own US mom didn't acknowledge my existence until I was born for fear things would go wrong...is it as easy to remain detached in India?)

2. Is there some expectation that the child will come back (really, not unreasonable after going through the whole pregnancy thing - and how are the foreign parents to deal with the search for identity, especially if the child is particularly curious)

3. Will the women who give birth be damaged as far as further marriage prospects are concerned and is this important? Will they choose this as a career? Is it possible to do this many times?

4. How old are these birth mothers and how are they chosen?

5. Who are these rich people and why, oh why do they do this?

6. Is the money you get enough to pay for the sacrifice you make?

gosh, we've got a novel here...à vos plumes

It always sort of shocks me the way that expats, immigrants, and members of diasporan communities are willing to exploit the folks back home and/or greener or less fortunate members of the same community.

Though, on the other hand, I'm sure it's always been the case -- there are lots of stories about 2nd generation Irish immigrants scamming the ones fresh off the boat, German Jews ghettoizing Russian Jews (this is still happening in New York with the recent influx of western Asian Jews from the former Soviet republics), etc.

One thing I'll say, to Aemilys' #'s 3 and 4 is that in the US, at least, women who've already had one or two children are considered better prospects for surrogacy, both because there is proof that she is fertile and because it lessens the likelihood that there will be extreme separation anxiety. So I'd guess that in India it's women who are already married or have already been married (in fact, after seeing Water, a cynical part of me wonders how many of these surrogates are young widows).