US gay couple rents a womb in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: At an upmarket ethnic wear store in Banjara Hills, US citizen Brad Fister (29) carefully cradled his 22-day-old baby who carries his genes but is ‘made’ at a clinic in Hyderabad. On Thursday, 24 hours before he leaves for Kentucky, US, where he lives with his same-sex partner Michael, Fister said he was happy he was leaving India with ‘his’ daughter.

Fister and Michael, who owns a computer firm, spent an amount of $ 60,000 to get this child, are the first among a bunch of gay couples who are coming to Hyderabad seeking surrogate mothers to carry babies for them. In fact, Fister’s daughter, who he has named Ashton, is the first surrogate child case of an American couple handled by the US Consulate in Hyderabad.

Fister had come to Hyderabad last year when he donated his sperm which was fused with an egg donated by an Indian egg donor. The resultant embryo was then implanted in a surrogate mother and this entire procedure was carried out at a city-based infertility centre, a first such case (of two dads) for them. The child was delivered by the surrogate mother on January 28 and Fister says the baby girl is his reflection with his “chin and lips”. The surrogate mother got paid Rs 4 lakh for carrying the baby, the going rate for rented wombs in the city.

The presence of international clients in the surrogacy industry in Hyderabad, say industry insiders, have led to higher rates for surrogate mothers.

Rates, they say, have doubled over the last few months. Of the total Rs 4-4.5 lakh charged for the surrogate mother, the woman who delivers the child gets Rs 2.5 lakh and another one lakh is earmarked for her diet and comfort during the nine-month period. The remaining amount of Rs 50,000 goes to the registered medical practitioner who would get the surrogate mother.

Job applicants from TN trashed in Hyderabad

Some of the job applicants who appeared for the interview at BHEL in Hyderabad were trashed by local aspirants on Wednesday.

The candidates filed a complaint with the Chennai police on Thursday. Two aspirants, Nagesh Naidu from Vizag and Rama Murthy from Vizianagaram, were also trashed by the locals. They filed the complaint with the Ramachandrapuram police which arrested seven persons in the case.

The case was registered against the arrested under section 147 (rioting) 324 (Voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons), 427 (Mischief and there by causing damage to property), 506 (Criminal intimidation) of the IPC and section 7 (1) of the Criminal Amendment Act.

Ramachandrapuram police sub-inspector Shankar Reddy said, “Nagesh and Murthy stayed in quarter no 849 of BHEL township where one of their relatives lives.”

The victims were waiting for results after they appeared in the written test conducted by the company on February 14 when the locals allegedly attacked them. The authorities have now informed them that the results would be mailed to them.

The victims believe that they were trashed because the majority of selected candidates were from Tamil Nadu. The victims were trashed on Wednesday by mostly local BHEL employees after they stopped the results from being announced and then forcibly took the victims to the railway station.

The candidates now fear the attacks when they will appear for the interview and have asked for protection.