Baby trade ban

India’s Government has cleared the way for a measure that would ban all commercial surrogacy in the country, allowing only close family relatives to become surrogate mothers. The proposed measure is a blow to the thriving but unregulated rent-a-womb industry that many activists say is exploiting poor women. The Surrogacy Bill 2016 will be presented in Parliament for approval in the next session. In the past decade, India has emerged as one of the top destinations for childless couples from around the world who pay impoverished women to give birth to have their children. According to one estimate, at least 40,000 surrogate babies were born in the past decade. Many foreigners came to India to hire affordable surrogate mothers for a price that could range from US$8000 ($10,940) to US$40,000.