India becoming a designer baby factory: Author Kishwar Desai

Delhi : Life is no longer a gift of love; it is being created with care to fit specifications furnished by parents in the age of surrogacy and in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), says award-winning writer Kishwar Desai.

Desai`s new social thriller ‘Origins of Love’ (Simon & Schuster) probes the world of surrogacy and designer babies.

"India is becoming a baby factory. Last year over 25,000 babies were born out of IVF and surrogacy in India. Rich people in the country can afford designer babies now," Desai said in an interview.

"Earlier it was a form of colonisation, but now studies show the numbers are divided equally - 50 percent of surrogate babies are born to rich Indian parents and 50 percent to foreigners by Indian surrogates...," said the writer, quoting figures from the research she undertook for writing her book and columns.

Desai`s novel is a sequel to her first book – ‘Witness by Night’ - on female foeticide.

The thread is Simran Singh, a feisty middle-aged social worker and a single mother from the first book, who carries the narrative forward.

"I have taken my book beyond the new Bollywood movie, `Vicky Donor`, which is about sperm donation and shows it as a comfort zone. I wanted to explore the discomfort zone. The kids born of the same DNA (eggs) might carry an infected strain of it."

"In the UK, a child can find out the name of the father and mother, but in India, there is no law. The donors are very poor and usually use the money to give their own children a better start in life...," Desai said.

The novel is grim in its depiction of surrogacy - ratcheting up the fear of the "unknown" in children born out of unidentified egg donors and ensuing dilemmas.

A baby is abandoned in the national capital. A product of IVF and surrogacy, she was coveted until she was diagnosed with the fatal AIDS virus. No one knows how the infection was transferred into her.

The baby`s fate touches many lives - that of a childless couple in London, doctors, IVF clinics, Simran the social worker and a multi-billion dollar IVF and surrogacy business that is heartless, unethical and unchecked in India.

A whole new body of surrogacy language like commissioning parents, who hire surrogate mothers for their babies, and gestational mother, who rents her womb but cannot get emotionally-attached to the child, has come into being in the IVF clinics, the writer said.

"Surrogacy contracts - usually kept under wraps - stipulate that the lives of the babies are more precious than the mothers and in case of life-threatening situations, the baby has to be delivered safely," she said.

"Surrogacy is an international project. Commissioning parents now look for fairer babies with coloured eyes, bringing into picture women from Europe and Ukraine as surrogates - especially in countries like India. Donors with good educational qualifications and achievements are sought after...," she said.

The casualty is emotion. "This baby production process has no emotional quotient, just detachment. It is advance science which makes it possible."

Explaining with rather gut-wrenching instances, Desai said "she came to know of a woman who was administered 25 cycles of IVF treatment for surrogacy while another was forced to carry four embryos in her womb out of which the healthiest one was allowed to live and the rest were removed during pregnancy".

"This process of elimination is known as foetal reduction... it is very scary. There are several grey areas in the Indian surrogacy business about women`s rights to their bodies, choices and ethics that need to be addressed," she said.

"The gay community is using it a lot. They have access to their own DNA and look for a surrogate mother. British musician Elton John has one such child and is planning another one. A lot of other celebrities are going through it," the writer said.
Ref:http://zeenews.india.com/entertainment/bookworm/india-becoming-a-designer-baby-factory-author-kishwar-desai_2343.htm

Govt mouthpiece bats for surrogacy tourism

Branding surrogacy as “reproductive tourism”, the official mouthpiece of the Gujarat government has described the practice as a money-spinner for both the state and the surrogates. This comes even as issues surrounding commercial surrogacy continue to be debated.
The quarterly magazine (The Gujarat-English Version), published by the state Commissionerate of Information, carries a cover story on Swami Vivekananda and has a “special feature” on reproductive tourism.

Fatwa against surrogacy

Lucknow (Sanjay Pandey-DECCAN HERALD) : A new fatwa (religious decree), issued by a prominent Uttar Pradesh based Islamic institution has asked the Muslims to avoid surrogacy (an arrangement in which a woman carries and delivers a child for another couple or person) and test tube babies as they were not allowed in Islam.

The fatwa issued by the Darul Ifta (fatwa section) of the Bareilly Markaz (centre), based at UP’s Bareilly town, says that it was “un-islamic” to have children through surrogacy or by any artificial means. “Islam does not allow a person to have child through unnatural means,” Mufti Kafil Ahmed, a prominent cleric with the fatwa section, said. The fatwa has been issued in response to a query. “Can a childless couple, who does not want to adopt a child, avail the services of a surrogate mother or go for a test tube baby,” the questioner sought to know from the Markaz.

Mufti Kafil said under no circumstances can surrogacy and test tube babies be allowed in Islam as they go against its tenets.

He also said that at a seminar of prominent muslim clerics held a few years back at Bareilly, it had been declared that artificial methods to have children were against the “shariat” (islamic laws) and thus they should be avoided. “The clerics were in union on this issue,” he said. Bareilly Markaz is a prestigious islamic centre and has a large following in the world.

Surrogacy, though not an old phenomenon in India, has been gaining popularity among the childless couples. More and more people are now opting for surrogacy or test tube babies if they do not want to adopt

Surrogacy or coma, is the choice in Amraiwadi

Ahmedabad (Kinjal Desai-DNA) : Living dangerously is nothing new for a majority of the women of Ward 56 of Amraiwadi area, even if the risks that the women take are merely to escape the poverty that bedevils the locality.
More than 70% of the women in Amraiwadi are forced to make ends meet either by donating blood for money or by volunteering to be guinea pigs for pharmaceutical companies.
Among the medicines for which clinical trials are conducted on women volunteers from the area are drugs for treatment of comatose patients. If they recover from the artificially induced coma, they can hope to earn as much as Rs1 lakh. If something goes wrong and a volunteer does not come out of coma, she gets nothing unless her spouse has been informed from before.
The women have a third, equally hazardous, option and, that is, to become surrogate mothers for wealthy foreign couples who cannot have children.
The recent incident in which a 36-year-old surrogate mother died in the eighth month of pregnancy may have shocked people and made them aware of the medical risks involved in this ethically suspect activity. But for a majority of the women in Amraiwadi surrogacy offers them a way to earn money to pay off debts, medical bills or sometimes simply the expenses of a large family.
They disregard the medical risks involved merely for the money that surrogacy offers.
The estimated population of Amraiwadi Ward No 56 is 92,000. Purshottam Parmar, who runs an NGO, RAAH, said that 70% of the people in this area - that is around 64,000 individuals - frequently adopt risky ways to earn some money. Parmar's NGO has been working with the poor in the area in an effort to try and stop them from volunteering for dangerous work.
"Three years back, around 40-50% of the population of this area used to earn their livelihood by accepting dangerous work. Their numbers have gone up and now nearly 70% donate blood, volunteer to serve as guinea pigs for pharma companies or become surrogate mothers in an endless battle against poverty", he said.
Parmar further said that the poor in Amraiwadi comprise dalits, Vagharis and migrant workers from UP, Bihar and other states. They are largely in the unorganised sector and are daily-wage earners. They live in rented houses for which they pay a minimum Rs1000-1500 per month.
As for the women, they work either as housemaids or as cooks for families living in nearby localities, Parmar said. However, cooking as an option is available mainly during the wedding season when a woman can expect to earn Rs200-300 on a daily basis. Some women make incense sticks at home or do stitching work. Some survive by rag-picking. But the earning from none of these occupations is enough to run a family of four or five, said Parmar.
"Most women have six mouths to feed - husband and wife, two children and parents. Since the men are employed in the unorganised sector, they get work only for 20 days a month, earning Rs100-150 daily. The men spend most of their earnings on liquor, gambling, ghutka, and the like. Hence their women have to earn to sustain their families," Parmar said.
Of the people from the area who volunteer for clinical trials of new medicines, most are women. However, youths in age group of 25-30 years have started volunteering for these tests to pay for expensive bikes, hi-tech mobile phones and other gadgets. "For clinical trial of safer medicines, women and youth are paid Rs8000 to Rs10,000 and, more often than not, their families are not informed about the tests. A person who volunteers for trials of HIV or cancer medicines is paid anywhere between Rs15,000 to Rs30,000," said Parmar.
He further said that the biggest earners are women who volunteer for tests of medicines used to treat comatose patients. "For such tests, the volunteers have to stay in Mumbai for six months. If they recover from the artificially induced coma, they are paid Rs80,000 to Rs1 lakh. If anything goes wrong during the test and a volunteer does not come out of coma, she gets nothing unless her spouse has been informed from before. Then the spouse is paid money to keep him quiet," said Parmar.
Surrogacy is becoming common among women of Ward 56. Parmar said a surrogate mother is paid Rs1 lakh to Rs2.5 lakh for bearing a single child. If she gives birth to twins, she can ask for any amount she wants, said Parmar.

Surrogate mother dies of complications

AHMEDABAD (TOI) : Premila Vaghela, 30, had opted to become a surrogate mother and deliver child of a US-based couple to supplement her family income and brighten the future of her own two kids.
On Wednesday, Premila, who was eight months pregnant, died due to unexplained complications. But she completed her job - the child was delivered and is in the NICU recuperating from early birth.

Surrogacy has picked up majorly all over Gujarat where Anand is considered the global surrogacy capital. Ahmedabad too caters to a big number of couples who medically need a womb to carry their child. Couples are known to pay anywhere between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 4 lakh to women who offer their wombs on rent to conceive and deliver the child. The decent money offered by couples, majority of who are NRGs and foreigners, attracts many women from poor socio-economic backgrounds to offer themselves as surrogates.
Premila paid the price of offering herself as surrogate with her life. Dr Manish Banker of Pulse Hospital, where Premila was a surrogate, said that they are clueless as to why Premila developed a fatal health incident. Dr Banker specializes in offering In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) services.

"Premila had come for routine check-up and was sitting in the hospital. While she was chatting with her husband Karsan, she suddenly had a convulsion and fell on the floor. We immediately took her for treatment. Since she was showing signs of distress, we conducted an emergency caesarean section delivery," said Dr Banker. The child, who was born a month premature, was admitted in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Dr Banker said that the child should be stable soon.

Meanwhile, Premila developed severe complications and she was shifted to Sterling Hospital for better intensive care. "We shifted her to Sterling Hospital for intensive care but she failed to respond and died," said Dr Banker.

Sterling Hospital officials said that Premila was brought to the hospital in an extremely critical condition. "She was suffering a major cardiac arrest. We tried to resuscitate her but she succumbed," said a senior official.
Dr Banker said that they had notified the death to the police and details of post-mortem report were awaited to know the exact cause of death. Vastrapur police said a case of accidental death had been filed. and further inquiry would be conducted on basis of the post-mortem report.