Surrogate baby in “legal limbo”
A Japanese couple who paid a surrogate in India (where the practice is still allowed) have divorced, and now the baby is stuck without a home due to legal problems.
Some countries and parts of the United States have banned surrogacy as a money-making venture, but India legalized it in 2002. Under the practice, infertile couples are matched with local women to carry babies for $12,000 to $30,000.
It’s a booming business, worth an estimated $445 million a year.
“Cheap mothers are available here. There is so much poverty. … It’s employment for them,” says Dr. Sadhana Arya with India’s Arya Hospital.
“You have treated the surrogate mother like an object, used her as a factory, produced something, given money for it.”
But, she says, the final product “is a live child.”
Information from: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/08...
