Outsourcing Pregnancy

Photo by Henna by Heather - Mehndi in Boston/Providence M

Is there any outsourcing need India is unable to meet? Apparently, not, at least when it comes to surrogate pregnancies, according to this very informative Time article:

India has become the world capital of outsourced pregnancies, whereby surrogates are implanted with foreign embryos and paid to carry the resultant babies to term. In 2002 the country legalized commercial surrogacy in an effort to promote medical tourism, a sector the Confederation of Indian Industry predicts will generate $2.3 billion annually by 2012. Indian surrogate mothers are readily available and cheap. Unlike most countries in which surrogacy is lawful — and bucking the norm in heavily bureaucratic India — the procedure can take place without reams of government red tape.