Investigators are finally getting to the bottom of the kidney-transplanting organization over in India.  Dr. Amit Kumar is the alleged mastermind of the kidney-theft ring.  He has admitted to his involvement in about 300 transplants in the last 12-13 years.  Several other doctors have been accused of taking part in the scheme.

Kumar was quoted saying, “I have not duped anyone.  I have not done anything wrong.  You know that.”

Right now he is only being charged with violating the country’s Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, “which regulates the flow of international currency in the Asian nation.  Kumar was carrying approximately $256,000 in mixed currencies, including U.S. Dollars, Euros and a bank draft made out for Rupees at the time of his arrest.  Police are still trying to some how charge him for the kidney-theft, since he will only get up to four years of prison for the currency violation.

 Update 2/21/08: I was looking into this more when I ran across a video on MSNBC… MSNBC is sort of late on the story, but it is informational as well.  Click here to check it out.

Talk about volunteering, these women give up their uteruses for families to use. Although, the Indian women are making more than they would in 15 years, but, they still are devoting 9 months to a family.

These Indian women are doing a noble cause for families who have issues conceiving children on their own.

Dr. Nayna Patel, the woman behind Anand’s baby boom, defends her work as meaningful for everyone involved.

“There is this one woman who desperately needs a baby and cannot have her own child without the help of a surrogate. And at the other end there is this woman who badly wants to help her (own) family,” Patel said. “If this female wants to help the other one … why not allow that? … It’s not for any bad cause. They’re helping one another to have a new life in this world.”

Although, how long will the process continue without rich families just deciding that pregnancy is far too much work for their manicured hands?

Critics say the couples are exploiting poor women in India — a country with an alarmingly high maternal death rate — by hiring them at a cut-rate cost to undergo the hardship, pain and risks of labor.

“It raises the factor of baby farms in developing countries,” said Dr. John Lantos of the Center for Practical Bioethics in Kansas City, Mo. “It comes down to questions of voluntariness and risk.”

Patel’s surrogate mother agency is one who only accepts the people who are in serious need, or desire to have their own children. Patel only accepts those who cannot have children due to complications such as uterine cancer

Patel also makes sure that every surrogate mother is in good stable health, and as already had one child of their own.

This article was very interesting to me because I have always looked at adoption. I know that adoption is super expensive, but at the same time cost doesn’t matter when it comes to having a family of your own. I had never thought about the surrogate mother option. Thinking of the families who are desperate to have their own little children, surrogate mother sounds like a pleasant option, it’s cheap and Patel makes it sound safer with contracts. Unfortunately the market for surrogate mothers will become corrupt, just as corrupt as the adoption market.

You hear those horror stories about families being tricked into thinking they are getting a healthy baby girl from anywhere, China, Russian even the United States. They go through the process only to get conned into more fees, or the little girl could possibly get kidnapped and sold again. There are plenty of sick-minded fools out there only to make a buck. The surrogate market will be easily attacked if the Government doesn’t regulate.

Click to read more about Patel’s surrogate mother agency.