India's surrogacy capital

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2022

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 2003 Dr Nayana Patel, who ran her own fertility clinic in the state of Gujarat in India, carried out her first surrogacy procedure. It was a purely altruistic case and involved a surrogate mother and her own daughter. Dr Patel's clinic would go on to become one of the biggest in India attracting Western couples in a country where women were paid to become surrogates. It was legalised in 2002 but due to growing criticism, the government banned couples from the West from paying Indian surrogates to bear their children in 2015, arguing that the industry was exploiting poor women. Reena Stanton-Sharma spoke to Dr Nayana Patel.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	On the podium season 2 is available now.
0:02.8	Like many people in this world I have never seen an Olympic medal before.
0:07.2	Bringing you more remarkable stories of Olympic and Paralympic athletes
0:11.8	and their incredible journeys to the podium.
0:14.4	This is my dream and it's came through that day.
0:17.0	Find out more at the end of this podcast.
0:24.2	Hello and thank you for downloading the BBC witness history podcast with me,
0:28.9	Wiener Stanton Sharma. Today we're going back to 2003
0:33.4	when a fertility doctor in India carried out her first surrogacy procedure.
0:39.1	It was a very exciting moment at the same time, a very satisfying moment
0:45.2	that yes, science can help so many unfortunate females on this earth.
0:52.4	That's fertility expert Dr Naina Patel. Her commercial surrogacy clinic would go on
0:58.0	to become one of the biggest in India. It would also transform the lives of
1:02.0	thousands of families globally and it would prove to be highly controversial.
1:07.0	But her first case was purely altruistic and very unusual.
1:11.7	She was approached by a British Asian couple.
1:14.4	The wife had a condition which meant that she wouldn't be able to carry her own children,
1:18.8	but through IVF Dr Patel would be able to use the woman's eggs and her husband's sperm to create embryos.
1:26.4	The couple visited Dr Patel's clinic in a town called Arnand in Gujarat
1:30.6	and the woman's mother who lived in India also went along to the consultation.
1:35.1	I could feel the pain of the mother seeing her daughter not able to carry her child
1:40.8	and in India we always say that a mother can do anything for her daughter.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.