Singles eyeing surrogacy for babies

Nikole, a 45-year-old UK woman is single. Her ovaries have stopped producing eggs as she has entered menopause but, believe it or not, she will soon have a made-to-order baby of her own. Strange as it may sound, stringent rules for adoption in the West are forcing single people to go for babies through third-part donors of both egg and sperm, thanks to ‘in vitro fertilisation’ and surrogacy.

“For Nikole, we will look for an egg donor as well as a sperm donor,” said Dr Manish Banker, MD and director of Pulse hospital for women, Ahmedabad. “After in vitro fertilization of the egg, we will transplant the embryo into a surrogate mother’s womb, as Nikole’s uterus is not capable of carrying a baby.”

Adopting a child in the West is reportedly not as easy as one may think. Dr Banker said Nikole had tried to adopt a child but stringent rules for singles did not allow her to do so.

However, as Nikole would not be the biological parent of the baby born through surrogacy, Dr Banker has asked her to first get her embassy’s consent, and find out whether the child would be given British citizenship. IVF experts say a growing number of single men and women are coming forward to have kids through surrogacy in this manner. Dr Nayna Patel, an IVF expert said she had received several e-mails from singles who wanted to adopt a baby born through ‘third-party’ surrogacy.

She added that she makes sure that if a single woman wants a child through surrogacy, only the woman’s eggs are used with a donor’s sperm.   “Otherwise, how can she be considered the child’s biological parent?” Dr Patel said.