Mexico's Booming Business of Producing Babies for Foreigners Is About To Go Bust

Geoff Moss thought he had found — in Mexico — the "ideal location" for his agency that offers childless people the chance of paying a woman to bear them a baby.

The southern state of Tabasco happens to have a clause in its civil code that explicitly permits surrogacy, allowing contracting parents to obtain birth certificates with their names on them even if they have no genetic link to the child. Mexico is also not only close to the United States, where most of his clients come from, but costs are far lower, most notably the sums demanded by the surrogate mothers.

"It took a little time for the business to take off," Moss told VICE News. "It took time to convince people that Mexico was a good option, that it had good doctors, hospitals, and proper attention."

Moss was one of the pioneers of international surrogacy in Mexico that began when people like him were looking around for a new base after being largely shut out of India — the previous world hub — in 2012.

By last year...