Ms Natalie Gamble:

I used to deal with many people doing surrogacy in India. The reason it was closed as an option there was because of a decision made by the Indian Government. I do not know if that was based on perception or on specific cases. We should, however, be cautious about assuming that even women in India are incapable of giving informed consent. I remember one Indian surrogacy case I dealt with where the parents were both British. The mum was of Indian origin, and she was able to speak the same language as the surrogate. They formed a positive direct relationship. The surrogate had a business that she ran with her husband, but it had been destroyed by flooding. The surrogacy enabled the family to restart that business and get back on their feet. That woman was incredibly proud that she could do that to help her family. They all supported her and it was a very positive experience. It ended up with the intended parents being invited to go to the wedding of that family's son, and they all stayed in touch in the long run. Therefore, we should be cautious about just assuming that women being from a different culture, speaking a different language or being in a different poverty bracket means they cannot make informed consent decisions. We must, however, take care to ensure that their decisions are made with informed consent. Equally, however, we must be careful about saying that all Indian surrogacy, or all surrogacy in any particular country, is necessarily exploitative because these women are different from us.