Singaporeans are paying six-figure sums to have a surrogate baby in India, Malaysia, Thailand and the US, according to a report.
But prospects for this business were weaning with the latest controversy in Thailand, where Australian parents have allegedly abandoned a baby boy born with Down syndrome.
In India, the government has ruled since last year that couple seeking surrogate babies must enter the country with medical visas which requires a government letter from their home country that the applicants would be allowed to bring the child born through surrogate home as their biological child.
The Sunday Times cited Dr Anoop Gupta, director of the Delhi IVF & Fertility Research Centre in New Delhi, as saying that he was no longer getting any Singapore couples for surrogates since the medical visa requirement.
The Sunday edition of the mainstream Singapore newspaper quoted Dr Gupta as saying that he was getting five to six couples a year from Singapore for surrogate babies.
Many were Indian nationals who had settled in Singapore.
"I expect my business to take a total hit as Thai doctors are now afraid to do surrogacy procedures, as they risk losing their medical licences," the newspaper quoted Michael Ho, who runs Singapore-based Asian Surrogates, as saying.
"I have to explore sending new clients to India or close down," said Ho, 60, who went into surrogacy business as a "sideline" in 2006 in addition to being property agent.
The National Council of Islamic Religious Affairs in Malaysia had issued a fatwa in 2008 banning surrogacy, according to Ho, who started his baby business by sending clients to Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru with Malaysians and Filipino women, including poor single mothers.
The Thai surrogate mothers were often poor villagers under 25 years old.
Ho said his Thai agents would house and care for the women who need the money.
A couple using Thailand fertility clinic could easily spend 100,000 dollars before having the baby, including the cost of IVF treatment.
Ho said he has been getting under 10 clients a year, mostly Indonesians and Malaysians. It was only in recent years that a few Singaporeans have used his service.
Ho said surrogate baby seekers were well-to-do Singaporean couples in their 30s and 40s, who have failed with many IVF attempts and did not want to adopt a child.
Meanwhile, some Singapore couples have gone online to find surrogate mothers willing to bear their babies.
One German woman has contacted a Singapore couple to bear their baby for 42,000 dollars and have the IVF procedure done in Thailand or Canada.
