It Gives New Meaning To The Term "Cheap Labor"
Welcome to Rent-A-Womb, AKA "reproductive tourism."
It seems there's almost nothing, including pregnancy, that can't be outsourced to India. Henry Chu writes in the LA Times of Saroj Mehli, and India woman who will be paid $5,000 for being a surrogate mother to an American couple's child -- a sum that would take her "more than six years" to earn in her job as a school teacher:
"I might renovate or add to the house, or spend it on my kids' education or my daughter's wedding," Mehli said.Beyond the money, she said, there is the reward of bringing happiness to a childless couple in the United States, where such a service would cost them thousands of dollars more, not to mention the potential legal hassles.
Driven by many of the same factors that have led Western businesses to outsource some of their operations to India in recent years, an increasing number of infertile couples from abroad are coming here in search of women such as Mehli who are willing, in effect, to rent out their wombs.
...Some see the practice as a logical outgrowth of India's fast-paced economic growth and liberalization of the last 15 years, a perfect meeting of supply and demand in a globalized marketplace.
"It's win-win," said S.K. Nanda, a former health secretary here in Gujarat state. "It's a completely capitalistic enterprise. There is nothing unethical about it. If you launched it somewhere like West Bengal or Assam" — both poverty-stricken states — "you'd have a lot of takers."
Others aren't so sure about the moral implications, and are worried about the exploitation of poor women and the risks in a land where 100,000 women die every year as a result of pregnancy and childbirth. Rich couples from the West paying Indian women for the use of their bodies, they say, is distasteful at best, unconscionable at worst.
"You're subjecting the life of that woman who will be a surrogate to some amount of risk," said C.P. Puri, director of the National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health in Mumbai (formerly Bombay). "That is where I personally feel it should not become a trade."
Both sides of the debate agree that the fertility business in India, including "reproductive tourism" by foreigners, is potentially enormous. Current figures are tough to pin down, but the Indian Council of Medical Research estimates that helping residents and visitors beget children could bloom into a nearly $6-billion-a-year industry.
There are those who will scream because it's people taking control of biology. Always an issue for some...generally the "believers," who think we shouldn't mess with "god's" work.
Essentially, for a lot of people...correcting imperfections is okay; improving" yourself isn't. That's probably why it's considered okay to get breast implants if you've had a mastectomy, but not okay to get them if you just think you're a little flat. (For the record, because I know Treach will ask...mine are real!)
But, really, if you don't have an issue, in principle, with your cable company's call center being outsourced...and if the women choose to take the risk...what's the problem?
But, but, but Amy, What happens if a Hindu soul accidentally enters the baby's body and the baby is born Hindu, not Christian! This business of tampering with the "natural process" could incur the wrath of Jesus Christ resulting in the condemnation to hell of the infant! We all need to write our Republican reps in Congress and demand they enact laws prohibiting this abomination. Gawd shall not be mocked!
Bill Henry at April 20, 2006 3:05 AM
If an Indian woman, chooses to carry for another person, that's her business.All jobs carry a risk, from data inputter to barnacle scarper to soldier. And if someone is paying her six-grand, I imagine they'd demand that some of that money be used for at least a modicum of prenatal and delivery care. Puri's claim of risk to the mother is legitimate, but not the real issue that bothers people: rich white people in the West paying struggling brown people in the East, which they find distasteful. There's also the faction, I'm sure, that wants Americans to spend their dollars in America.
nancy at April 20, 2006 7:04 AM
I don't have any problem with the ethics (which really doesn't say much, given my general lameness in thinking about ethical issues), but I would love to see someone study the effects of this new market on the lives of these women and their families. I think it's safe to say that traditional gender roles are the norm in India. Surely this kind of work is going to mess with that to some extent.
Lena at April 20, 2006 7:40 AM
Why the pisspot? They're dolls.
Fuckin' white babies....
Crid at April 20, 2006 9:20 AM
See, here's what I don't get: why are people willing to go to such extreme lengths to have a "biological" child when there are so many kids without homes who are available to adopt? Even babies if you're not set on a little blond-haired-blue-eyed cherub. My husband and I agreed early on that if we weren't able to conceive, we'd switch our focus to adopting rather than going through any fertility/surrogate stuff. We just wanted a child to raise and love, not a little carbon copy of ourselves.
deja pseu at April 20, 2006 11:59 AM
That's what makes that photo so striking... It doesn't make white life very attractive.
Crid at April 20, 2006 12:52 PM
I am not sure you can apply the same argument for "freedom to do what they want with their bodies" to American women and Indian women. American women, I would think, have a lot more say over how their bodies are handled than women in the poorer parts of India. Look at the abortion business in India, and it is primarilly to abort female fetuses.
I wouldn't want to see an enterprising Indian father farming out his daughters to satisfy an already over-crowded America... sort of like the flourishing industry in China supplying body parts to Japan from executed prisoners.
eric at April 20, 2006 1:23 PM
I agree, deja.
Amy Alkon at April 20, 2006 1:47 PM
Before we get all wacko here, the piece states, way down, that most of the couples looking for surrogates are Indian, or at least 1/2 of the couple is. I don't know why the reporter didn't put that little insight farther up in the story as it puts a different complexion on the whole phenomemon.
Here's a quote from the 3/9/06 Asian Pacfic Post
www.asianpacificpost.com
"Primarily catering to childless Indian couples living in Canada, Britain, Australia and the United States, the professional surrogates get paid between one and two lakh rupees (about C$2,500 and C$5,000) to improve their poor and landless lives.
Dr. Nayna Patel
Their champion is gynecologist Dr Nayna Patel, who has been practicing In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) for seven years now in her hamlet of hope."
It's not rich white people enslaving lithe teens in saris, nor is it evil Christians stealing Hindu womb space.
KateCoe at April 20, 2006 2:18 PM
Excuse me, but someone has to address the important part of this thread: "For the record, because I know Treach will ask...mine are real!"
I say (from a proper distance and with great respect),
Excellent!
Life is good!
Radwaste at April 20, 2006 5:59 PM
If there's an issue, it's not so much economics as much as perceived vanity. One wonders if sterile couples shouldn't just adopt an orphan instead of going the surrogacy route.
Personally, I don't buy it. The desire to have your "own" kid is not rational....it's hardwired into our instincts.
Speedy at April 20, 2006 6:41 PM
"Always an issue for some...generally the 'believers,' who think we shouldn't mess with 'god's' work."
Ummm... let me guess. Amy is... Jewish?? Now how could I have possibly figured that out? LOL.
Bryanna at April 20, 2006 10:19 PM
"If there's an issue, it's not so much economics as much as perceived vanity. One wonders if sterile couples shouldn't just adopt an orphan instead of going the surrogacy route."
I have a relative who has gone through 2 cycles of IVF with no results. I asked about the adoption route and she said "somebody else's problem child" Meaning that they did not know what they would get. Though no one really does but that they only wanted their own genetic material. So I would imagine that people interested in this service were implanting fertile eggs in receptive wombs. Or is it the birth mother's and host father’s genetic material?
anon at April 23, 2006 8:41 PM
"Ummm... let me guess. Amy is... Jewish?? Now how could I have possibly figured that out? LOL."
Amy is not Jewish. Amy was born Jewish. She was also born with a brain, hence she is an atheist.
Bryanna, I suggest you check out the-brights.net.
I also suggest you stop using "LOL." If it's funny, we'll laugh. If it's not, and you use that acronym, we'll simple want to throttle you.
Regarding the couples afraid of "somebody else's problem child"; if only they'd think to ask the rest of us about our fears of what they're about to spawn.
Amy Alkon at April 23, 2006 9:47 PM
sweetheart : maybee u know the name thay call a ex goddes in india?
1. you know the one that is looked over from head to toe for no in-Perfections
and named a child goddes untill a seritn age the n she can never remarry or a horible fatre can and will befall the man that man ..
and how can i contact the ex -godesses
Don rollins at March 6, 2007 4:09 PM
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