Surrogate motherhood began as a service for women who, though fertile, could not conceive children.
“Dear Doctor Banker, I am Lucy from UK. I and my husband wish to have our own children and are even medically fit, but I want to avoid the hassles of pregnancy. I don’t want to gain weight or stay away from my work for a long time. Could help us find a surrogate mother in India who will be willing to carry our baby?”
Dear Doctor Nayna Patel, I am Danny from UK. My girlfriend is a model, and doesn’t want to make any compromise on the career front by getting pregnant. But we both wish to have our own kids. Can you help us have kids by arranging for a surrogate mother?”
These are not excerpts from a work of fiction but emails received by in vitro fertilisation (IVF) surrogacy experts in Ahmedabad and Anand.
Surrogate motherhood began as a service for women who, though fertile, could not conceive children. For the surrogate mother, invariably hailing from a lower middle class family, it was a means of earning some extra money to help the family and help a childless couple have their child.
But IVF surrogacy experts say they have been observing an alarming trend of urban professional women opting for surrogacy for non-medical reasons, the primary cause being not wanting to stay away from work for long, and also to avoid putting on weight and/or losing their figure.
“I was shocked to read the mail,” said Dr Manish Banker, director of Pulse Women’s Hospital, Ahmedabad. “Lucy wrote in her mail that she doesn’t want to go through pregnancy pangs and they would give me their eggs and sperm and I should give them the baby.”
Lucy even requested triplets in the first attempt so that she doesn’t have to through the surrogate motherhood process again.
The doctors insist they do not entertain such cases as it is against medical ethics. “If patients do not have medical problems like a weak uterus and tuberculosis of uterus, which weaken the chances of conceiving a baby, we discourage patients from going in for surrogacy. I would rather take a surrogate mother’s help to give babies to childless couples with medical ailments that to help those who can conceive a child,” said Banker.
Dr Nayana Patel, who pioneered the surrogacy concept, says she advocates surrogacy only for couple who have difficulties in conceiving babies. She also believes that getting children through surrogate mothers even when the couple is medically fit shows a wrong attitude towards bringing up children. “If the lady is not willing to carry a child in her womb, how sincere and responsible will she be in nurturing the child in future?” asked Patel.
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