Surrogacy a $445 mn business in India

Surrogacy in India is estimated to be a $445 million business with the country being the foremost in the world for the practice because of the low cost of treatment and the ready availability of women willing to rent their wombs to childless couples.

Lawyer Apurva Agarwal, during a three-day national moot court competition here, said that surrogacy has been a debatable issue in India and since it is a $445 million business, there is need for relevant laws.

"Sooner or later, we need to have the laws in place to protect the Indian surrogate mothers and also the foreigners who come here for treatment," she added.

"To further the cause of requisite laws for it (surrogacy), we organised the national moot court," said Agarwal.
At the competition that concluded at the Rizvi Law College here Sunday, a participant noted that in India, surrogacy costs about $12,000 compared to $70,000 in the US.

Then, British and American laws forbid surrogate mothers to charge a childless couple, while Indian laws do not prevent this, another participant noted.

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