Hyderabad: 48 surrogate women left in lurch after raid

Hyderabad: Forty eight surrogate mothers with seven- to nine-month pregnancy have nowhere to go after they were discovered by police in a raid on Kiran Fertility Centre at Sai Kiran Hospital in Banjara Hills on Saturday.

The centre had carried out the surrogacy procedures without following norms.

  The big question now is what will happen to unborn babies and the surrogate mothers as the centre has been sealed.

District medical and health authorities say the district collector will have to take a decision. “So far, they have not been shifted. But the moot question is where should they be shifted to. These are illegal pregnancies and not in tandem with the existing guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research,” said a senior officer who did not want to be named.

Sixty per cent of the surrogates are carrying babies for non-resident Indian clients and 40 per cent of them are single parents. Since the clients are not likely to come back after the raid, what will the surrogate mother do with the child?

Surrogate mothers are paid only after the completion of a successful delivery by the centre. So for the nine months of pregnancy, no money is paid. The women are given a comfortable stay in a neat and clean environment and good food.

The surrogate mothers have minimal access to their families. The husband and children of the surrogate mother are allowed to visit her for a few hours. But she is alone most of the time and strictly monitored so that there is less chance of infection. 

Most of the surrogate mothers are below 30 years of age.

A senior officer of epidemiology wing of Hyderabad told this newspaper that many surrogates are kept in apartments in Panjag-utta, Somajiguda and Banjara Hills.

These commercial transactions came to light after a pregnant woman had contracted with swine flu last winter. Since then health officials have been keeping a lookout.