Field notes: The push and pull of commercial surrogacy

Despite the practice being banned in India, clinics have devised ways to work around it

Dr Nayna Patel, a pioneer of reproductive surrogacy in India, conducting an ultrasound on a surrogate mother at Kaival Hospital in Anand, Gujarat state, back in 2015, the same year that India banned commercial surrogacy for foreign nationals in the c
Dr Nayna Patel, a pioneer of reproductive surrogacy in India, conducting an ultrasound on a surrogate mother at Kaival Hospital in Anand, Gujarat state, back in 2015, the same year that India banned commercial surrogacy for foreign nationals in the country. For many Indian women, surrogacy offered a less laborious way to earn money than their daily jobs as, for example, workers in garment factories.PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Dr Nayna Patel, a pioneer of reproductive surrogacy in India, conducting an ultrasound on a surrogate mother at Kaival Hospital in Anand, Gujarat state, back in 2015, the same year that India banned commercial surrogacy for foreign nationals in the c
Indian surrogate mothers holding a protest at an in-vitro fertilisation clinic in Anand, Gujarat state, in 2015. Many people have argued for India's ban on commercial surrogacy to be lifted and the practice reintroduced, albeit with strong checks.PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
India Correspondent
Published: 
Apr 20, 2019, 5:00 am SGT
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NEW DELHI • India used to be known as a global baby factory, due to a booming commercial surrogacy business for foreign couples worth more than US$2 billion (S$2.7 billion) a year.

This was until the government decided to ban the practice in 2015.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on April 20, 2019, with the headline 'The push and pull of commercial surrogacy'. Subscribe
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