Surrogacy in India---$7000 to the woman and costs

[Jalapeñomel]

$25k. What do you think? Is $7000 and R&B a fair fee for carrying a child for 9 months?


todayhealth.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/28/11883566-a-baby-made-in-india-a-couples-dream-comes-true?lite

[angelaa73]

I'm guessing that's a helluva lot more than they would make in the US, conversion and all, no?

[louloudi87]

Here, I think you get $15k-$30K. I dont know what the conversion is.

[Jalapeñomel]

It seems so weird that there are a bunch of woman collected in one area that are carrying someone else's child.

[Sloane]

May 28, 2012 17:25:02 GMT -5 heybetch said:

May 28, 2012 17:15:34 GMT -5 @msstarry said:

Supply and demand I suppose.

wikipedia says per capita income in India is around $1400 a year so it seems fair to me.

I would be really nervous doing this based on the instability of international laws.

THIS. Wasn't there just a big debate on this about some woman stuck in Israel with her kids because they couldn't obtain American citizenship, because they were born to a surrogate in Israel?

I think that in that case the babies were born to an American mom but donor eggs and sperm were used.

USA Today article said this was the issue, so maybe citizenship isn't an issue where the surrogate is carrying biological children to at least one American citizen?: "The U.S. State Department says a child born outside the USA to an American cannot receive citizenship until a biological link with at least one parent is established"

[Captain Serious]

From the standpoimt of the person who would raise the child, it's cheeper than most adoptions. From the standpoint of a woman who might carry the baby, $7,000 doesn't seem like nearly enough. IA person could donate their eggs for $3,500.

[Jalapeñomel]

I'm somewhat concerned that maybe these women are not aware of the risks of pregnancy and birth, and that they are clouded by money. But, you know, I cannot really blame them.

[wise_rita]

This is interesting! But the article totally glazed over some very important parts.

1. Quality of healthcare: This baby was premature, what kind of healthcare did he get in India?

2. Citizenship: How difficult was it for the child to get his American citizenship/passport?

Those two things would be my biggest concerns with foreign surrogacy.

[Cayl]

I went to India a few years ago (H is from there) and $100 was worth 4000 rupees, so $7k would be a lot of money over there (my FIL just came back and said the exchange is pretty much the same). So it would probably significantly improve the woman's financial life. Culturally, though, it wouldn't surprise me if it would cause her issues. From what I saw there and have seen with my ILs there's a lot of emphasis on what's proper and bringing shame to your family and gossip and stuff like that so I wouldn't think that being a surrogate would be something that's widely accepted over there.

[mdgirl]

I mostly lurk on this board, but I was reading about this this morning and found a story where a couple had to get a DNA test for a child born by a surrogate in India to get citizenship in their country, and it turned out the baby (it might have even been twins) wasn't theirs. We're not talking about a country that has the medical or ethical standards of most Western countries (and I say this as someone with in-laws from India and I've been there a couple times).

[Cayl]

May 28, 2012 20:35:43 GMT -5 mdgirl said:

I mostly lurk on this board, but I was reading about this this morning and found a story where a couple had to get a DNA test for a child born by a surrogate in India to get citizenship in their country, and it turned out the baby (it might have even been twins) wasn't theirs. We're not talking about a country that has the medical or ethical standards of most Western countries (and I say this as someone with in-laws from India and I've been there a couple times).

This is also definitely true. When I was over there I went with my H and BIL to get their eyes checked (they wanted to get them done there since its so cheap). The eye doctor didn't even wash his hands between each patient - there wasn't even a sink in the room! The guy who went in before us had gauze over his eye and I was completely grossed out thinking about what could have been under the gauze that the doctor touched before touching BIL. I told H to forget it and get his eyes checked back home. They just don't have the same standards that we have here (which is part of the reason that medical care is so cheap there).

[Jalapeñomel]

The healthcare is cheap here, but you can certainly find places that havethe same sanitary habits as those fromthe US. I would hope te same was true there.