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Childless Asian couples from Britain are increasingly travelling to India to pay women to act as surrogate mothers for them.
In a country where there are no laws surrounding surrogacy, the industry has become a multi-million dollar business.
One couple who made the journey to India are 44-year-old Bobby and his partner, Nikki Bains, 43, from the English town of Ilford.
Their three-month-old daughter, Daisy, was conceived at the Rotunda clinic in Mumbai (Bombay).
A donor egg was fertilised with Bobby's sperm. The embryo was then implanted into a surrogate - a woman the couple have never met.
The couple had several attempts at fertility treatment in the UK. Bobby says they were forced to widen their search for a surrogate to India because of a shortage of available surrogates in Britain.
"Before 2000, we were looking for a surrogate in the UK. None came about, actually one or two did but they were bad apples. I'm sure there are some good surrogates here but the ones we came across were not too good. That's why we went to India," says Bobby.
Surrogacy in Britain is a legal and ethical minefield. The industry is strongly regulated and there are strict laws governing it.
But infertile Asian couples in Britain face even more difficulties. Jackson Kirkman-Brown is a scientist at the assisted conception unit at a women's hospital in the central British city of Birmingham.
"In the Asian community the number of eggs or sperm that are available from donors is very, very scarce. The likelihood of an Asian couple immediately receiving either donor sperm or a donor egg is very low.
"In the whole of the UK there are only two Asian (sperm) donors that we are aware of that match onto the general Asian background."
So the shortage of Asian eggs, sperm and surrogates is driving couples like Bobby and Nikki Bains to travel to India for help. It's a trend consultant obstetrician Massoud Afnan is witnessing.
"Couples, Asian and others, are going abroad to have their fertility treatment. It is getting increasingly popular. I can see this sort of reproductive tourism happening more and more."
The Rotunda clinic where baby Daisy was conceived is tucked away in a side street of an exclusive Mumbai suburb.
The clinic's director is Dr Gautam Allapadia, a leading infertility specialist. He spelled out clearly why his clinic was so successful with foreign couples.
This is a photo of surrogate mothers awaiting delivery in Anand.
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Childless Asian couples from Britain are increasingly travelling to India to pay women to act as surrogate mothers for them.
In a country where there are no laws surrounding surrogacy, the industry has become a multi-million dollar business.
One couple who made the journey to India are 44-year-old Bobby and his partner, Nikki Bains, 43, from the English town of Ilford.
Their three-month-old daughter, Daisy, was conceived at the Rotunda clinic in Mumbai (Bombay).
A donor egg was fertilised with Bobby's sperm. The embryo was then implanted into a surrogate - a woman the couple have never met.
The couple had several attempts at fertility treatment in the UK. Bobby says they were forced to widen their search for a surrogate to India because of a shortage of available surrogates in Britain.
"Before 2000, we were looking for a surrogate in the UK. None came about, actually one or two did but they were bad apples. I'm sure there are some good surrogates here but the ones we came across were not too good. That's why we went to India," says Bobby.
Surrogacy in Britain is a legal and ethical minefield. The industry is strongly regulated and there are strict laws governing it.
But infertile Asian couples in Britain face even more difficulties. Jackson Kirkman-Brown is a scientist at the assisted conception unit at a women's hospital in the central British city of Birmingham.
"In the Asian community the number of eggs or sperm that are available from donors is very, very scarce. The likelihood of an Asian couple immediately receiving either donor sperm or a donor egg is very low.
"In the whole of the UK there are only two Asian (sperm) donors that we are aware of that match onto the general Asian background."
So the shortage of Asian eggs, sperm and surrogates is driving couples like Bobby and Nikki Bains to travel to India for help. It's a trend consultant obstetrician Massoud Afnan is witnessing.
"Couples, Asian and others, are going abroad to have their fertility treatment. It is getting increasingly popular. I can see this sort of reproductive tourism happening more and more."
The Rotunda clinic where baby Daisy was conceived is tucked away in a side street of an exclusive Mumbai suburb.
The clinic's director is Dr Gautam Allapadia, a leading infertility specialist. He spelled out clearly why his clinic was so successful with foreign couples.
This is a photo of surrogate mothers awaiting delivery in Anand.
Discuss
Add this link to...
Tell a friend
Bury
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