Silchar mothers take surrogate motherhood plunge | ||
| OUR CORRESPONDENT | ||
Silchar, Sept. 12: The jury is still out on the ethics behind surrogate motherhood, the rent-a-womb option for childless couples when everything else fails. But Ranjana and
Pooja (names changed), who are about to become the first in the Northeast to bear somebody elses children for a price, are convinced that the choice they have made is the right one. Dr Pramod Sharma, under whose supervision 600 test-tube babies have been born in the last 10 years, said both the would-be surrogate mothers had signed the consent forms and would undergo in-vitro fertilisation shortly. Both would like to remain anonymous for obvious reasons. Although the concept of surrogate motherhood is catching on, no such birth has been recorded in the Northeast as yet. One of the women has four children and the other has three. Both intend to use the money promised to them to give their children a better education than they can afford now. For the couples who have chosen to hire wombs, the money they have to pay is but a
small price for the joy of being parents. Dr Sharma, who heads Guwahati-based Pratiksha Hospitals, has tied up with Angel Fertility Clinic in Silchar to help childless couples become parents through various methods of assisted reproduction. The fertility specialist did extensive research in Australia before setting up his hospital in the Assam capital in the mid-nineties. The first test tube baby born under my supervision is now a beautiful 10-year-old girl, he said. But life is not easy for a surrogate mother. For instance, how would she deal with questions that would be asked by neighbours and relatives during her pregnancy? Ranjana and Pooja do not seem to be bothered about such questions. At least not yet. Dr Sharma said when
both women were told about the implications of bearing somebody elses children, they seemed to clearly understand what they were getting into. Surrogate motherhood throws up psychological problems, too. There is always a possibility that the surrogate mother and the baby will bond. Psychiatrists say post-partum blues are heightened in surrogate mothers. The Indian Council of Medical Research has framed several rules for surrogate motherhood, one of which is that no woman may act as a surrogate more than thrice in her lifetime. |
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