Surrogacy isn’t illegal in India simply because there are no laws and this makes surrogate mothers vulnerable to exploitation.

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"When anything is influenced by economics, by money, there is invariably a dark side. Money can have a powerful corrupting influence on people from all walks of life,” admits Dr Rajesh Parikh, a neuro psychiatrist in the Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai. Parikh, who has 18 years experience, has counseled commissioning parents and also and surrogate mothers.

"If surrogacy becomes an avenue by which women, in relatively wealthy countries, select poorer women in our country to bear their babies, then it is economic exploitation, a kind of biological colonisation," says Parikh.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has guidelines for surrogacy and these say doctors and hospitals should not be involved in the monetary dealings between the couple and the surrogate. A surrogate mother should not be over 45 years of age and no woman may act as a surrogate more than thrice in her lifetime.

So can a woman who is 18 or even younger become a surrogate mother? What if she is already a mother to five children? Won’t it tell on her health?

Lawyer and social activist Nandita Rao considers the ICMR guidelines to be toothless. "The ICMR guidelines have been made to totally facilitate clinics and to facilitate genetic parents who want surrogate mothers. There is nothing to protect the interests of the surrogate mothers," she says.

Before the procedure begins, there is a contract between the surrogate and the commissioning parents. “When you have a contract between an illiterate woman who is absolutely needy for money, and a powerful couple advised by lawyers the contract is null and void. The surrogate mother is not giving her free consent, she is not informed of the consequences," says Rao.

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According to agreements they sign at the start of IVF, surrogate mothers cannot retain the baby. "Once they deliver they have to hand over the baby. They do not have any responsibility towards the baby. It's the responsibility of the infertile couple to keep the baby," says Dr Patel, of the Kaival Hospital in Surat.

And what if the couple that hired a surrogate mother decides they don’t want a baby after delivery? “Nothing can compel them to take the child, so in that sense, the child's right is not protected," says Rao.

There is another crucial factor surrogacy does in fact, have a low success rate. "We tell them (surrogate mothers) that the first two deliveries might have been normal but in the third you can end up with a complication. There could be some complication of pregnancy and delivery, but still they want to go ahead with it. They want to earn something, or get something out of it," says Dr Patel.

For childless couples, surrogacy is yet another option, the laws are still in the embryonic stages surrogate mothers who come from the lowest social strata of the society are open to exploitation. Medical tourism is on the rise. Are baby boomers a part of the package?