For thousands of well-off childless couples, the dream of having a baby is often realized in places like Thailand and India. Ready to help them are young women willing to be paid as surrogates, their wombs offered up as vessels that can safely carry a developing infant to birth.

Most of the time, it's a bargain that suits both parties - unless something goes wrong.

The case of an Australian couple accused of abandoning their baby to his Thai surrogate mother after discovering the child had Down syndrome - and taking home his healthy twin - has cast unfavorable light on the largely unregulated business of commercial surrogacy.

The suggestion that the Australian biological parents wanted to raise only the healthy child and left behind her blond, brown-eyed brother, who also has a congenital heart condition, sparked outrage worldwide.

"There is a dark side to this business," a Thai employee of the agency that arranged the deal acknowledged.

The surrogate in this case, a 21-year-old food vendor with two young children of her own, says she has not been paid the full $9,300 fee she was promised.

"Most of the time I have seen happiness," said the woman, who asked not to be identified because it might jeopardize her job.

Couples seek surrogacy away from home mainly for legal and financial reasons. Some nations tightly restrict surrogacy, or ban it outright. Others have no surrogacy laws, though national medical boards often deal with it in their codes of ethics.

Laws vary widely, and there is no guarantee that a contract - or the child resulting from the arrangement - will be recognized in another country. In the United States, some states forbid commercial transactions and stipulate that any contract for a surrogate birth is unenforceable.

Other states, including California and Illinois, are receptive to commercial surrogacy and have regulations to help enforce agreements.

In Thailand, wealthy couples from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia - where commercial surrogacy is banned - are major customers, said Nandana Indananda, a Bangkok-based lawyer who headed a project to draft a Thai surrogacy law, which has not yet passed.

Contributing to Thailand's popularity is the large number of impoverished women willing to carry babies for a price, and the availability of doctors with good skills in reproductive medicine, Nandana said.

India has also emerged as a major center for low-cost surrogacy, thanks to its skilled doctors, medical infrastructure and vast population of poor women willing to do the job.

A full-term surrogate pregnancy normally costs $18,000 to $30,000 in India, doctors say, with about $5,000 to $7,000 going to the surrogate.

(China Daily 08/08/2014 page11)