Outsourcing Pregnancy

Indian surrogacy is now a half-billion dollar industry. Doree Shafrir on why American couples—especially gay men—are having children abroad for less money and with fewer headaches.

Mike Griebe and Brad Fister had tried everything to have a child. They explored adoption. They researched what Griebe termed "a baby factory type deal," where you basically pay for a "ready-made baby." They went to agencies that promise to find babies in the United States. The Kentucky couple even paid $20,000 to a Virginia woman to be a surrogate, only to walk away when she insisted that if anything happened to Griebe, 38, and...