Exploiting Mothers and Children: Baby Factories

Remember the Family Court baby Factories ?  Well here is what they are doing to mothers and children in india:

Single men buying children for £15,000 at 'baby factory' 

Robert Mendick
08.06.09

A surrogacy clinic in India is advertising babies for sale to single men in Britain.

Newborns can be bought for as little as £15,000 at the private clinic in Mumbai. More than 10 single men have purchased babies from the Rotunda Clinic.

No checks on their background are made, including whether they have convictions or have been vetted by social workers.

One London couple who had a child thanks to the clinic have been approached by single men hoping to do the same.

Bobby Bains, who runs a website explaining how to obtain a surrogate baby in India, said one in six inquiries he gets comes from single men or gay couples.

"I make the introductions," said Mr Bains, from Ilford. "I don't like it myself but I still put them in touch with India. There's no stopping it. The Pandora's Box is open and there is no going back. This is the future."

Mr Bains, 45, and his wife Nikki, 44, paid the Rotunda Clinic tens of thousands of pound over several years in a desperate attempt to have a baby.

Finally last July, a surrogate mother, implanted with a donated egg fertilised by Mr Bains' sperm, gave birth to their daughter Daisy.

Rotunda's website advertises its surrogacy service with the pledge of a birth certificate issued in the name of the "intended parents" and the baby handed over immediately after the birth.

Its website states: "Rotunda offers gestational surrogacy in India to people of all nationalities.

All couples including lesbian and gay couples and even single men and single women can avail this facility to fulfil their dream of enjoying parenthood."

Dr Gautam Allahbadia, who runs the clinic, told the Standard he thought anyone who wanted a baby should be entitled to have one - despite growing concern that a near-absence of regulations has allowed the surrogacy industry there to boom unchecked.

He said: "I believe that every human being has to be treated equal and all have the same right to procreate.

"If you are within the ambit of your country's laws and believe strongly in your own principles, one should not bother about critics. Some human beings come into this world only to criticise."

Mr Allahbadia said "more than 10" single men had used the surrogacy service, compared to 50 Western couples - "some of them British" - who went through his clinic last year.

But the promise of surrogate babies to single men has alarmed campaigners and politicians in Britain.

Ann Widdecombe, the Tory MP and a long-time critic of surrogacy, said: "It is appalling to treat children as if they were goods. Children are a blessing, not designer goods. They deserve a start in life with mum and dad."

Norman Wells, of the pressure group Family and Youth Concern, said: "Nature itself tells us that children were intended to have both a father and a mother, and neither is an optional extra.

"We are embarking on a dangerous social experiment that runs contrary to common sense if we deliberately set out to bring a child into the world without the presence and involvement of both a father and mother who are committed for life to each other.

"If we are really committed to giving children the best possible start in life, the last thing we should be doing is to tamper with the natural order."

A leading obstetrician at a Mumbai hospital told the Standard last month that she delivered on average one baby to a British couple every 48 hours.

Dr Anita Soni said: "For these surrogate mothers the money is life-changing. There is absolutely no exploitation. It is really big money. It is a jackpot."