Surrogate motherhood: the gain and the pain

WHEN Phoebe (actress Lisa Kudrow) of the much-acclaimed television serial, ‘Friends’, decided to offer her services as a surrogate mother, many thought that she was crazy. Closer home, the mainstream film, ‘Filhaal’, which explored the subject with a measure of sensitivity, flopped at the box-office.

Surreal as it may seem, couples worldwide are increasingly seeing surrogacy as a viable option to bear genetically related children.

"In India, it is estimated that approximately 15 to 20 per cent couples suffer from infertility," says Dr Anoop Kumar Gupta, Medical Director and Infertility Specialist of the Delhi IVF In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) Centre. "The figure is...