Posted on 12/30/2007 1:06:05 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
ANAND, India - Every night in this quiet western Indian city, 15 pregnant women prepare for sleep in the spacious house they share, ascending the stairs in a procession of ballooned bellies, to bedrooms that become a landscape of soft hills.
A team of maids, cooks and doctors looks after the women, whose pregnancies would be unusual anywhere else but are common here. The young mothers of Anand, a place famous for its milk, are pregnant with the children of infertile couples from around the world.
The small clinic at Kaival Hospital matches infertile couples with local women, cares for the women during pregnancy and delivery, and counsels them afterward. Anand's surrogate mothers, pioneers in the growing field of outsourced pregnancies, have given birth to roughly 40 babies.
More than 50 women in this city are now pregnant with the children of couples from the United States, Taiwan, Britain and beyond. The women earn more than many would make in 15 years. But the program raises a host of uncomfortable questions that touch on morals and modern science, exploitation and globalization, and that most natural of desires: to have a family.
Dr. Nayna Patel, the woman behind Anand's baby boom, defends her work as meaningful for everyone involved.
"There is this one woman who desperately needs a baby and cannot have her own child without the help of a surrogate. And at the other end there is this woman who badly wants to help her (own) family," Patel said. "If this female wants to help the other one ... why not allow that? ... It's not for any bad cause. They're helping one another to have a new life in this world."
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Sometimes I think God IS giving us the knowledge to know that if we CANNOT MAKE our own babies, 1) we should adopt, or 2) we should not have children of our own. This seems like screwing with mother nature (God) for a personal desire. It’s not like we are saving someone’s life (heart surgery or liver transplant)....it’s the desire to HAVE SOMETHING. JMHO.
That’s something to seriously think about, too.
What kind of womb ?
Rent-a-womb? Would that be a womb with a view?
bmfl
I wonder what the big deal is - if consenting adults want to hire a womb to carry their child; why is it so wrong? Sure, it’s weird; but is it morally wrong? If so, why?
If a very poor woman in India gets paid $15,000, or the equivalent of ten years of working at a factory to carry another couple’s baby, how twisted are we to condemn her? She uses the money to build a home for her family and help her children get medical care or go to school.
I have learned not to be too judgmental about what poor people do to survive. While a Mormon missionary in the Philippines, I remember a very poor woman who was abandoned by her husband to fend for their four kids. They were so poor she couldn’t afford to feed them, send them to school, or even buy slippers for their feet. She had to resort to prostitution just to take care of her children.
Which then is immoral - letting her children starve or sell her body to take care of them?
The same thing with these poor women in India. They get money for carrying another couple’s child. I’ve seen enough poverty and human cruelty in the world to know I really cannot condemn them for what they’re doing.
Happy New year
FMCDH(BITS)
And I understand that India's reproductivity rate is skyrocketing.
...wombs to rent, 50 cents.
We’re a land of means by no means
Adoption is not for all. Adoption is a very big sacrifice, and not all can make it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.