A British surrogacy firm is paying poverty-stricken Mexican women £12,000 to have a child.
My Surrogacy Journey (MSJ) has been accused of cashing in on the practice in a country where mothers can be recruited for a fraction of the rate charged elsewhere.
Campaigners are calling on the Government to bring an end to the trade, which has seen the British agency become the first to set up an overseas office to arrange surrogates.
Mexico has become increasingly popular for surrogacy because it allows pre-birth arrangements that see mothers sign away their rights to a child before it is born.
Additionally, Mexican mothers are paid just £12,000, compared with the £250,000 American surrogates receive.
Michael and Wes Johnson-Ellis, founders of the agency
Surrogacy Concern founder Helen Gibson told the Daily Mail: “We believe My Surrogacy Journey’s treatment of Mexican women is profoundly unethical.
“It also goes against what British surrogacy agencies are supposed to be: not-for-profit.
“Watching a British surrogacy agency set up a commercial outpost in a developing country is appalling. The Government should shut down this pipeline between Mexico and London.
“Mexican women on average earn less than the equivalent of £300 per month.
“How is offering low-income women money to become surrogate mothers for wealthy Western couples and single men safe or ethical?”
Advertisements show MSJ offers Mexican women 310,000 pesos, equating to roughly £12,000, to be surrogates and there are also additional payments available of £1,450 for a caesarean and £590 for an embryo transfer, according to the Mail.
One advert in Spanish features pictures of Big Ben and London’s red buses, with MSJ telling potential Mexican surrogates that no other agency has as many would-be parents waiting in the UK.
On its website, MSJ says Mexico has been chosen because of the “unique” terms available to operate there.
A pre-birth order is an agreement signed by the parents and surrogate before the child is born.
Such an agreement means the hospital where the child is born is required to write the names of the intended parent or parents on to the birth certificate for the child rather than the surrogate.
MSJ says the process gives prospective parents a “complete guarantee” that their parentage is “fully settled in the eyes of the law in Mexico”.
The typical wait time post birth is between two to three months.
In the UK, where surrogates are not allowed to be paid for the service, a surrogate mother is registered as the legal parent of the child.
Intended parents must then apply for a parental order to reassign parenthood through the courts.
A British woman, who recently used MSJ’s Mexico surrogacy scheme to have a baby but asked not to be named, told the Daily Mail it was “such a special moment” when they met their surrogate.
An MSJ spokesman told the Mail its adverts are “not inducements, but rather fair compensation” for surrogates, adding: “This is not payment for a baby, but rather an ethical recognition of the physical and emotional undertaking.”
The company said it did not work with surrogates “who are financially dependent on surrogacy” and is committed to ethical surrogacy.
Co-chief executive Michael Johnson-Ellis said: “The assumption that we should mirror our UK not-for-profit model internationally, without consideration for local laws, reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of how ethical surrogacy should be structured on a global scale.”
MSJ was approached for comment.