Following the restriction on surrogacy in India, Mexico is “fast becoming the new Eldorado for surrogacy”. Ever since this practice was legalised in 1997 in the State of Tabasco[1], “hundreds of women have been renting out their wombs every year to couples, often foreigners”. The latter are “attracted by the quality of the medical services and appealing prices”. But for the surrogate mothers, “the experience is not always rosy”.
Agencies “specialising in the provision of surrogacy services” have increased in recent years “to the detriment of women”. The “flexible” legislation in Tabasco does not monitor agencies that “open and shut shop as they see fit, sometimes reappearing under another name”. The “surrogacy market” is a real “business”, a “gold mine”- “they look upon babies as a product”. The collapse of an agency in 2014 partly “lifted the veil on an obscure and sparsely regulated industry”.
Surrogate mothers are initially attracted by the financial aspect and seduced by what the agencies have to say: “They talk to them of excellence, good treatment, nice people,” explains Sofia, who “rented her womb”. However, “Once the papers are signed, things becomecomplicated”. “Badly informed[2] and recruited because they are needy”, the women are trapped by a contract that they cannot get out of without reimbursing the agency for all of the costs incurred.
[1] including homosexual couples and foreigners.
[2] especially the physical and psychological issues surrounding in-vitro fertilisation.
Le Figaro (01/07/2015)