A Surrogacy Agency That Delivered Heartache
By Tamar Lewin,
The New York Times
| 07. 27. 2014
Untitled Document
CANCÚN, Mexico — Rudy Rupak, the founder of Planet Hospital, a medical tourism company based in California, was never shy about self-promotion. Over the last decade he has held forth about how his company has helped Americans head overseas for affordable tummy tucks and hip replacements. And after he expanded his business to include surrogacy in India for Western couples grappling with infertility — and then in Thailand, and last year, Mexico — he increasingly took credit for the global spread of surrogacy.
But now Mr. Rupak is in involuntary bankruptcy proceedings, under investigation by the F.B.I. and being pursued by dozens of furious clients from around the world who accuse him of taking their money and dashing their dreams of starting a family.
The practice of paying a woman to have an embryo transferred to her womb and bear the child for someone else, known as gestational surrogacy, has been growing steadily over the last decade although it remains illegal in most countries.
PROBLEMS FROM THE START Catherine Moscarello, a former employee of Planet Hospital, said...
Related Articles
By Miranda Bryant, The Guardian | 01.08.2023
The UK’s fertility regulator has called for an urgent update to the law around egg freezing as rapidly growing numbers of women choose to undergo the procedure – often without being warned of the full financial, emotional or physical cost...
By Blair Sowry, PET | 12.19.2022
The European Commission, the European Union (EU) executive responsible for proposing legislation, has proposed new regulation to allow parenthood rights to follow families across member states.
The proposed regulation is a key action in the EU strategies on the rights...
By Jenni Quilter, Slate | 12.13.2022
Most people understand in-vitro fertilization to be privilege for the wealthy, the well-insured, or those living in a country with a generous social safety net. In 2014, IVF clinics across Europe reported 508,433 cycles. In 2015, the United States...
Partial screenshot of “EctoLife”
In early December, “Science communicator and video producer” Hashem Al-Ghaili posted a video on his Linkedin page and YouTube channel titled:
Introducing EctoLife, the world’s first Artificial Womb Facility, which can incubate up to 30,000 babies a year.
Or, if you prefer, you could take home your artificial womb and grow your baby in your bedroom. And by the way if you have any little preferences for the future child’s genetic makeup – resistance to disease...