They're called 'miracles babies.'
Each one was born from a surrogate mother in India.
Mothers like 26-year-old Opina,
who just carried and gave birth to twins
for Christine, an infertile woman from Vancouver, Canada.
The babies were in my stomach,
but they do not look like me, or look Indian.
My baby girl looks like the genetic father,
and the boy looks like the mother.
Opina was able to buy a home
after renting out her womb for U.S.$7,500.
That's more than 10 years' wages in India.
She is one of 50 active surrogates who live here
at the Akanksha Infertility Clinic in Anand, Gujarat.
As a whole, the surrogacy team have about three babies every month.
Each surrogate is surgically implanted with the client's embryo,
which they carry under contract until delivery.
In India, this growing industry is estimated at U.S.$445 billion.
Hundreds of Westerners sign up each year
to hire a surrogate for 5 times less than what it would cost back home.
Christine, who didn't want her surname used,
tried in vitro fertilization (IVF) first,
transfering her fertilized egg to her own uterus.
No success.
India was her last hope,
since commercial surrogacy-- the acceptance of money
to carry another's child-- is outlawed in Canada.
I think there's an industry out there that's very complicated,
the whole fertility industry,
and I think there needs to be more openness toward surrogacy as an option
instead of continual repeat visits
and an encouragement for IVF cycles to continue.
Here is a young couple,
the lady was born without a uterus.
It's not her fault.
It's God's gift to her.
And for her, to make her life comfortable,
to make her suffering less.
If she wants a child of her own, from her own genes,
and if there is another lady who is ready to help her do the same thing,
okay, to have a baby,
why should it be a problem for anyone?
Dr. Nayna Patel started the clinic five years ago.
She requires surrogates to already have their own children,
and limits each to three tries.
She cringes at anyone who calls this exploitative.
As soon as you come to a poor country, you say that it's exploitation.
I know what it means to a surrogate,
the compensation that she gets.
What it means to her life.
What life they were living before
and now how it has changed their lives.
The rules are more lax in India.
Dr. Patel implants up to five embryos in a surrogate to ensure success,
meaning quintuplets are a possibility.
In Britian the maximum is two.
This explains the high incidence of twins at the clinic.
Dr. Patel says the surrogates are undeterred,
even if they risk greater physical strain from multiple births.
42-year-old New Yorker Heidi, who didn't want her surname used,
watches a ceremony for a Japanese man's new baby
born to an Indian surrogate.
This is Heidi's second try in India.
Her first surrogate suffered a miscarriage.
India is most affordable for her,
but her primary reason for coming here is legal.
Different states have different laws.
In New York, the contract is not binding.
Beyond going through all the paperwork,
if the surrogate decided she wanted to keep the baby,
the contract is null and void.
She has all the rights.
Indian surrogates have no legal right to the child after delivery.
Many surrogates here admit the hardest part
is giving the babies away after child birth.
I'm happy to give the couple the babies as a gift.
But, my heart is hurting.
But, I made this deal and I have to keep it.
Soon, Opina's only memory of the twins she held for nine months
will be this locket.