India gives birth to lucrative
business By Siddharth
Srivastava
NEW DELHI - Surrogate mothers
being outsourced to India add one more chapter to
the saga of cheaper "jobs" being transferred to
low-cost economies such as India. For now,
"hiring" a womb appears to be a win-win situation,
both from the cost and quality of medical service.
California-based Thomas and Karen, in
their 30s and originally from South Korea, were
married two years ago, but due to medical
complications were forced to look for a surrogate
mother. Research on the Internet led them to Anand
in Gujarat, which has
become known for such
in-vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures.
Pictures of their son, Brady, looking very
much like his genetic parents, were splashed
across television screens this week.
The
cost of renting a womb is under US$5,000, compared
to more than $50,000 in the West. The entire
procedure in India costs in the range of $10,000,
and the quality of treatment and technology and
the expertise of the country's doctors compares
with the best in the world.
What is more,
the surrogate mother in the case above desperately
needed the money. She lives in an impoverished
district of West Bengal and needs to pay for
treatment for her own very ill child who is
suffering from a heart ailment.
The income
she has earned is huge given her probable
subsistence at less than a dollar a day. There are
over 200 million Indians in this income category,
in a country with annual per capita income around
$500.
It seems that while one life has
been created, another has been saved, though there
has been criticism regarding the "commoditization
of motherhood", risk to health and exploitation of
the poor by the rich. However, the "plight" of a
smiling surrogate mother with a big bank balance
still looks like a better option than being one of
the thousands of destitute women who are pushed
into prostitution and treated mercilessly.
"It is difficult, but it is all right.
They did not have a child so I am happy that they
can be parents now, and I have found a friend in
her," said the surrogate mother whose name has
been withheld. "She's like my family. We just
don't share parentage of the child. It's more
emotional. She is like my sister," said Karen.
Infertility expert Dr Nayna Patel, who
conducted the procedure, said: "I have found
surrogate mothers for more than 50 couples, nearly
35% of which are foreigners, so far. This case is
a good example of how technology can help solve
crucial social problems. For me, the smile on
Karen's face when Brady was born was satisfying
enough."
According to Indian medical
practitioners, 100 to 150 of the 500 to 600
surrogate babies born across the world every year
are born in India. Many more are trying without
success.
However, doctors say that given
the fact that many women work and contribute
significantly to household welfare, some may not
want to take the time out to bear children and
will choose the IVF option.
Many couples
who adopt kids could also exercise this option.
The Indian Council for Medical Research has
estimated that the reproductive sector could soon
be worth $6 billion a year.
As things
stand, surrogate motherhood is illegal in Italy
and banned for commercial purposes in Australia,
Spain and China, and permitted with restrictions
in the US, France and Germany.
Though new
laws are being drafted, Indian medical statutes
permit doctors to implant five embryos into a
surrogate mother. In Britain the maximum is two,
while many European countries are looking at a
single embryo. India's existing laws permit the
surrogate mother to sign away her rights to the
baby, immediately after birth.
Reuters
quotes C P Puri, director of India's National
Institute for Research in Reproductive Health, as
saying: "Every pregnancy and birth is associated
with some health risk. We must not promote
surrogacy as a trade. In addition, many surrogate
mothers in India face issues associated with
"traditional attitudes to sex and procreation".
A report by India Brand Equity Foundation
and Ernst and Young says that outsourced
healthcare will employ nearly 200,000 people in
India by 2008, up from about 20,000 people in the
medical, healthcare and pharmaceutical business
process outsourcing space now.
According
to estimates, the industry is expected to generate
about $3 billion per year by 2010. Medical
outsourcing has four clients - provider (hospitals
and physicians), payer (health insurance
companies), pharmaceutical companies and
healthcare information technology companies.
Today, the Indian medical tourism market
(foreigners seeking medical treatment in India) is
worth $700 million and the projection is that it
will swell to $1 billion in the next couple of
years. More than 150,000 patients, the majority
from the US and the UK, have undergone treatment
in India.
The price differential can be
quite significant, especially for patients from
the US. For example, a liver transplant in the US
costs around $450,000, while in India it is
$40,000; low-cost cardiac surgery in India costs
$4,000 to $9,000, while in the US it can be in the
$30,000 to $50,000 range; orthopedic surgery costs
as little as $4,500 in India, while in the US it
is about $18,000. A comprehensive health check-up
for a US patient in India is around $80,
substantially less than the $600 it would cost
stateside.
It is estimated that 50 million
US citizens do not have health insurance policies
due to high premiums.
Traditional
outsourced services have been medical insurance
claims processing and digitizing patient health
records (medical transcription). Now, several
high-end services such as clinical data analytics,
biometric services and medical engineering are
being sourced from India.
Newer services
being outsourced include research, analyses and
reports on emerging technologies for major US
healthcare foundations and organizations, and for
industry publications.
The US-based First
Consulting Group, an IT services firm, recently
set up a healthcare outsourcing facility in
Bangalore.
Karvy, a financial services
company, has now moved into providing services to
the healthcare industry. Outsourcing major
Firstsource Solutions, formerly ICICI OneSource,
recently acquired BPM, a Delaware-based healthcare
claims outsourcing company in the US.
Last
year, Indian pharmaceutical firms acquired
international firms. Dr Reddy took over German
company Betapharm for about $570 million, and
Ranbaxy bought out Terapia for about $324 million.
Various Indian pharmaceutical firms have also
started to expand their businesses in countries
such as the US and the UK. Several foreign
pharmaceutical firms are targeting India's growing
market and also looking at outsourcing research at
half the cost.
Siddharth
Srivastava is a New Delhi-based
journalist.
(Copyright 2007 Asia Times
Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us
about sales, syndication and republishing.)
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
