India has become one of the foremost nations in surrogate mothers, and the surrogates ask for much lower compensation (about $15,000) for their services. But like the adage goes, you pay for what you get. Here are a couple reasons why choosing a surrogate in America, while less cost effective, is ultimately the better choice.
To begin, there is the status of India’s healthcare for children. In an article on BBC News, it has been reported that Indian children, especially girls, often are lacking health care. The number is about 10 million children who die because they are lacking basic healthcare.
A child born by surrogacy in India would not necessarily be raised in India, but those first critical hours – or even days – of life would be in a country who cannot manage to provide healthcare to its own children. If India cannot effectively provide healthcare to its own children, how can we safely assume the country will provide healthcare for the child of non-citizens?
On the legal side of things, a surrogacy in India can go completely awry due to restrictions on their adoption laws. As in the case of Ikufumi Yamada. He and his wife, who are Japanese, used a surrogate in India to bring their daughter into the world. However, during the pregnancy, the couple divorced.
The issue they faced was that the biological mother is uninterested in keeping her daughter; the surrogate mother cannot adopt her, and the biological father, who wanted his daughter, was not allowed to adopt her. Why? Because according to Indian law, a single male cannot adopt a female child. Despite the fact that this child is biologically related to him – Yamada was completely out of luck until the laws could be bent or totally changed in order to help him.
This same situation in America would pan out much differently. For one thing, the biological father would not even have to “adopt” the infant; she would be rightfully his by birth.
The lack of clear laws regarding surrogacy in India muddy the waters, and the lack of proper childhood healthcare is cause for concern. While monetary costs may be reduced from choosing surrogacy outside of the United States, the uncertainty as to the outcome of the birth is raised.
$15,000 for a surrogacy cycle may seem cost-effective, but taking home your own healthy child without any legal issues is truly priceless, and many states in America can guarantee that all measures are taken to ensure such an outcome.
