Commercial Surrogacy in India

Despite the social stigma surrounding commercial surrogacy in India, the practice is legal. Although the practice has been around longer, India opened its doors to surrogacy as a commercial enterprise in 2002 (Bhalla, Mansi). According to Abigail Haworth, some estimates claim that, "Indian surrogacy is already a $445-million-a-year business” (WebMD). According to Reuters, “over 3,000 fertility clinics” have been established in India as of 2012. While many oppose the practice on moral grounds proponents of surrogacy in India argue that the practice is morally justifiable because of the benefits that it provides to women as surrogate mothers and for the benefits that it provides to the couples for whom the surrogates are acting as proxy.

Surrogate mothers in India can receive as much as $5,000.00 to $7,000.00 per pregnancy; for the very poor women of India, that is a substantial amount of money. According to Haworth, income of that level is, “equivalent to upwards of 10 years' salary for rural Indians” (WebMD). Earning the equivalent of 10 years’ salary in 9 months time is a substantial income boost. Advocates of surrogacy in India argue that that kind of earning power is enabling to the Indian women who choose to participate it. Vohra, an India woman interviewed by Haworth claims that that kind of money enables her to “give [her] children a future” if her pregnancy is successful (WebMD). Allowing Indian women to provide for the education of their children empowers them and promotes gender equality. Significantly higher income through commercial surrogacy allows them to contribute to the family in a way that is generally inaccessible to them otherwise. Doctor Nayna Patel asserts that, "with the money, [surrogate mothers] are able ...

... middle of paper ...

...dren of their own a way to have children that are genetically related to them.

• C: Therefore the practice of surrogacy in India should be allowed to continue.

Supporters of the practice contend that these arguments provide good reasons for continuing the practice. Opponents of surrogacy acknowledge many of the claims made by supporters (e.g. they do not deny that it provides great economic incentive and benefits to women in India). Despite the advantages, they argue that the practice is not ethical and should be discontinued, or at least regulated more appropriately. One way that this might be done is to point out that surrogacy itself is not a morally reprehensible practice, but that they way it is being carried out in India is morally unjustifiable (e.g. it prays on the disadvantage of the poor, etc.). I will provide arguments for that position in a later paper.