CHENNAI: A surrogate mother who delivered twins in a private hospital on July 4 complained to police on Monday that she has been cheated by the hospital, which is paying her less than a quarter of what she claims she should be paid as compensation. The Royala Nagar police, where the complaint was lodged, however, have not lodged a formal complaint pursuant to the mother’s claims as they say they will verify the documents pertaining to the contract before lodging an FIR.
The mother claims she should be paid Rs 20 lakh instead of the Rs 3.5 lakh, which the hospital claims has already been paid. To date, the woman claims that even the Rs 3.5 lakh has not been paid to her for the surrogacy.
“I was not explained properly the terms of the contract when I agreed (to the surrogacy). Hospital officials told me that they will pay me Rs 10 lakh on completion of the surrogacy. But as it turned out, I delivered twins. So they must pay me Rs 20 lakh. But now they are retracting their word and say they will pay me only Rs 3.5 lakh. Out of poverty, I agreed to the surrogacy. But now I feel cheated,” the 24-year-old surrogate mother told Express.
Her relatives allege the hospital did not provide them a copy of the contract.
“It was in English. They just read it out to us. After she signed it, they did not give us a copy,” said a relative of the surrogate mother.
Srushti Fertility Centre and Women’s Hospital denied the allegations claiming that the relatives of the surrogate mother had pressurised her into demanding more money from the hospital after the delivery of twins.
When contacted by Express, M S Prashanthan, one of the directors of Srushti Fertility Centre and Women’s Hospital, said the hospital followed standard guidelines. “As per guidelines, the compensation for surrogacy when single child is conceived is Rs 2.5 lakh and for twins, Rs 3.5 lakh. We have paid the amount to the woman after she delivered twins on July 4,” he said. This contradicts the woman’s claim that she is yet to receive the Rs 3.5 lakh.
He also said the surrogate mother should be content with the compensation paid to her.
“This much money they cannot earn from other jobs. So they should be happy with what they get. But this woman is very greedy. She is also claiming the children. When she is genetically not related, how can she claim the children?” he said, adding that this is the first complaint the hospital is facing since registering with the Indian Council of Medical Research for carrying out surrogacies.
A senior police officer said no case has been registered based on the complaint of the surrogate mother.