Outsourcing Wombs, A "Loss" to India?

In India, mothers rent out their wombs to foreign couples who cannot conceive on their own. The couples not only prefer Indian surrogate mothers because it is cheaper, the laws in India also allow them to have parental rights over the child upon conception. They also like the set-up wherein the surrogate mothers who conceive by in-vitro fertilization of the couple's cells live in the clinic exclusively and are attended to by doctors, nurses, cooks and maids. All these has become easier with the internet wherein the foreign couples can choose and check up on the services and mothers online.

“The legal issues in the United States are complicated, having to do with that the surrogate mother still has legal rights to that child until they sign over their parental rights at the time of the delivery. Of course, and there’s the factor of costs. For some couples in the United States surrogacy can reach up to $80,000.” says “Julie,” an American thirtysomething who’d availed of this service. She went on,“You have no idea if your surrogate mother is smoking, drinking alcohol, doing drugs. You don’t know what she’s doing. You have a third-party agency as a mediator between the two of you, but there’s no one policing her in the sense that you don’t know what’s going on.”

It looks like our biggest competitor in service outsourcing has beat us to this. I don't mind. I know this is a good deal to many women out there who will get money out of it. They can say that no harm will be done to them anyway with the doctors and therapy that come afterwards. Some may argue that this cannot be slavery or human trafficking because the consent of the mothers are obtained. But promising for cash rewards is already a form of exploitation. Aren't the same issues in adoption, international and domestic applicable here? So there should be no payment for here in the Philippines. another thing, the child is Filipino born by a Filipino mother even if the egg and sperm cell used to conceive the child is foreign. The surrogate mother is still the "mother" isn't she? Then as a Filipino, the child is protected by our laws. Maybe that's why we "lost" this service to India. Or maybe if we do offer this service illegitimately, why there is no news about it.



Sources:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,319106,00.html

http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/oracle/guide/archives/welcome-to-2008-year-of-the-rentawomb-21508

http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/03/outsourced-wombs/?em&ex=1199682000&en=8bf971e34f2c5a0c&ei=5087%0A