Inside India’s Rent-A-Womb Business

FROM ITS POCKMARKED EXTERIOR WALLS and stark interior, you'd never guess that the pink three-story building tucked in a narrow alley a few blocks from the train station in the fast-growing city of Anand houses India's most successful surrogate childbirth business. But this is the place they raved about on Oprah. Nowadays, thanks to the endorsement of daytime TV's leading lady [1], the Akanksha Infertility Clinic [2]fertilizes eggs, implants and incubates embryos, and finally delivers contract babies at a rate of nearly one a week.

Doctor Nayna Patel [3], Akanksha's founder, has just finished washing up after delivering twins by cesarean...