The developing concept of health tourism, better known as medical tourism, is a wonderful package deal that takes care of the medical and relaxation needs of people (patients) travelling to India.
They travel all the way to get a knee transplant, undergo a heart surgery, correct their looks with cosmetic surgery or prepare for dental care.
The reasons are simple: India has some of the best hospitals, treatment centres and facilities. Not only this, our infrastructure and technology is at par with the west. Also the treatment provided are cost effective, ensuring critical cases have less waiting time.
For instance, a joint replacement surgery in the US would have cost a stupendous $50,000 while the same could be done for only $8000 in India.
In fact surrogate mothers in India are also a much sought after section as the total cost including the air tickets and hotels for two trips to India (one for the fertilisation and a second to collect the baby) comes to around $25,000, “roughly a third of the typical price in the United States.”
According to a news report, “Reproductive outsourcing is a new but rapidly expanding enterprise in India. Clinics that provide surrogate mothers for foreigners say they have been inundated with requests from the United States and Europe in recent months, as word spreads of India’s combination of skilled medical professionals, relatively liberal laws and low prices.
Commercial surrogacy, which is banned in some European countries and subject to a wide spectrum of regulation in US states, was legalised in India in 2002.”
Thus, with the Israeli gay couple having a baby, by a Mumbai-based surrogate mother, it is clear that medical tourism has solutions for the needy in the west.
Tue, Nov 18 02:15 AM
LESS THAN a year ago, Omer and Yonathan Gher dropped a rose in to the Arabian Sea with a silent prayer, just as a fortune teller had told them to do. The Israeli gay couple’s prayers were answered on Monday as they boarded a flight home with a son in their arms – a month after he was born to a surrogate mother at Mumbai’s Hiranandani Hospital.
“I couldn’t believe my luck when the doctor called from India announcing that we were pregnant,” said Yonathan, 30, a social activist. The gay couple had been living together for seven years and desperately wanted a child, but the laws in Israel did not allow them to adopt or beget one through a surrogate mother.
So they decided to come to India to find a surrogate mother. “There are two options – India and the US,” said Omer, 31, a psychiatrist.
“We chose India because it was cheaper and our money would help a woman here much more than elsewhere.” The Ghers are among numerous gay couples coming India to look for surrogate mothers.
“Last year, India saw the first case of surrogacy to a gay couple from Israel,” said Dr Gautam Allahbadia, IVF consultant who facilitated the procedure. “Since then, we’ve been flooded with similar requests, although we have to turn back some couples because of laws in their countries.
Variety is the Spice of Life 