News & Society

Is India The Nation Of Surrogacy For Foreign Couples?
By Maynard Joseph Delfin

The ethical issues of surrogacy in India are a complex topic. How can we put a halt to Indian surrogate mothers who are willing to take all the risks in the name of a better life?

India, a country populated by poor families and mostly of women with no equal rights with men, will surely take all efforts to survive. At the end of nine months, the birth of the child and the happiness it brings to the surrogate parents are priceless. But considering the money involved in this seemingly "flesh trade" of hiring a mother to bear a child is a confusion to consider in its legal terms.

As the reproductive enterprise in the country is booming as a result of willing mothers to give in and the preference for Indian healthy women with no vices, sickness or any defects, I believe this trade will go on. But one question comes to mind, especially to those illiterate Indian women whose fate is determined by their families, do they have a choice?

Is this not an issue of economic disparity between the "haves" and the "have-nots"? No matter how hard we deny, but this is a form of exploitation of women. Indeed to some degree, I know most surrogate mothers will do this for money rather than to the notion of helping other people. Is having a child nowadays like buying in the store by simply visiting India?

Surrogacy may be legal in India, but the country never realizes that there is an emotional pain that money cannot give to mothers who have risked their lives to bring a child in this world.

Motherhood will truly be the real essence of a woman as what Sushmita Sen, 1994 Miss Universe beauty queen, said. This feeling cannot be reconciled within a surrogate mother who lost the baby inside her womb after being paid a good sum of money. Again, the money is quite good for a certain time, but a new life brought to this world is a long-lasting issue that cannot be erased. Sooner of later, the surrogate child will try to find his roots to continue life in the brighter side of things.

If there is another option instead of surrogacy, I prefer adoption. The world is too big to find a child and treat him as your own.

Maynard Joseph Delfin finished AB Journalism (cum laude) at the University of Santo Tomas. He has worked as book editor, deskman, copy editor and research and publications officer in leading publishing and research companies in the Philippines. Read more of his blogs at http://maynard_delfin.instablogs.com

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