
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


In a Cambodian hospital, a group of terrified new mothers nurse tiny babies under the watch of police guards. They're surrogates, desperately poor women promised $10,000 to bear children for parents in China. But they were arrested under new anti-trafficking rules, and now they face an agonising choice: either they agree to keep children they didn't want and can't easily afford to bring up, children who aren't genetically theirs - or they honour their surrogacy contracts, and face up to 20 years in jail. Tim Whewell reports on the suffering as country after country in Asia cracks down on commercial surrogacy - and asks whether the detained mothers are criminals - or victims.
By BBC Radio 44.7
7474 ratings
In a Cambodian hospital, a group of terrified new mothers nurse tiny babies under the watch of police guards. They're surrogates, desperately poor women promised $10,000 to bear children for parents in China. But they were arrested under new anti-trafficking rules, and now they face an agonising choice: either they agree to keep children they didn't want and can't easily afford to bring up, children who aren't genetically theirs - or they honour their surrogacy contracts, and face up to 20 years in jail. Tim Whewell reports on the suffering as country after country in Asia cracks down on commercial surrogacy - and asks whether the detained mothers are criminals - or victims.

7,583 Listeners

375 Listeners

887 Listeners

1,045 Listeners

5,463 Listeners

1,801 Listeners

959 Listeners

1,764 Listeners

1,047 Listeners

2,089 Listeners

480 Listeners

106 Listeners

44 Listeners

41 Listeners

35 Listeners

298 Listeners

72 Listeners

746 Listeners

851 Listeners

161 Listeners

82 Listeners

4,160 Listeners

3,187 Listeners

39 Listeners