The Baby Makers
Assisted reproductive technology has become a booming industry in India. Around 1500 surrogacy centres give hope to desperate couples, helping lift surrogate mothers out of poverty; but at what cost?
"We tried IVF for 4,5 years. I fell pregnant 4 times and lost all 4 babies", says Kali Gerakas from Australia. She is now the proud mother of twins, Costa and Christina. Surrogacy has become a lucrative industry in many parts of India. Some believe the $7000 fee per birth, is a win-win situation, for both hopeful foreign parents, and Indian surrogate mothers. But with many surrogates coming from very poor backgrounds with little or no education, there are concerns that some are pressed into the industry by their husbands and families, as a quick way to make money. "They have been brainwashed because they are so poor", argues Kishwar Desai, author and surrogacy critic, "people are forgetting that there are human beings and emotions involved". In this highly unregulated industry, parents' dreams face exploitation by overcharging clinics. But as pioneering commercial surrogacy business person Dr Patel believes: "if you feel that the childless should live a life of misery, or the poor are meant to remain poor, then you will consider this as something immoral, a baby making factory".
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