Surrogacy costs: $40,000 in the US, €3,000 in Seville

Surrogacy: $40,000 in the US and €3,000 in Seville

Surrogacy has returned to the Spanish public debate, starting with financial figures: $40,000 for the gestational carrier in the United States, half in Canada, and half of that in the UK. The market responds quickly, but the law does not.

How much a gestational carrier actually earns

Estimates place the US compensation between $35,000 and $45,000, with food and medical expenses covered for a year. In Canada, the figure is halved, and in the UK, it is halved again, around £10,000 in expenses, as direct payment is prohibited.

The breakdown ruins the story of a huge profit. Of the $150,000 or $200,000 total cost, agencies, lawyers, and clinics take the largest share. In Seville and Extremadura, cases involved just over €3,000.

A key fact dispels the idea of a bargain: in the UK, only 150 women have undergone a legal process. In Portugal, one. In Canada, 300 are estimated. If it were the round business some describe, the figures would be different.

Free contracts between adults and the problem of the third party who does not sign

One view argues it is an agreement between two informed parties with no state interference. If a woman prefers gestating for $40,000 to making beds for $1,000 a month, it is her decision. The counterargument highlights a third party who does not sign: a child born into a pre-decided family.

When money enters the equation, the freedom of the poorer party becomes questionable, and the contract resembles a necessity with a signature.

Health risks not included in the budget

Gestating is not office work: it involves hormonal, physical, and psychological changes, a difficult final trimester, delivery complications, and postpartum depression. In the US, a serious complication can turn $40,000 into a lifelong debt.

No job uses a person's internal organs to produce a human being delivered to another. The distance between renting a body and using a body is not rhetorical.

Custom-made babies and relocating business to needy countries

Agencies offer discounts for repeat processes or sens selection. The paying client receives a specific baby, with eyes and a record.

When practice becomes expensive in rich countries, the business migrates where need is acute. The same contract defended as free is often signed where there is no economic alternative. The complete calculation, including intermediary margins, surprises those who believe the money reaches the woman intact.

The intermediate proposal: paying to carry a pregnancy to term

A third path emerges: if pregnancies are interrupted annually in Spain, why not compensate women who carry to term and place the baby for adoption? The proposal is uncomfortable, implying payment for not aborting, and reveals that adoption and surrogacy compete for the same market of children who do not arrive.

The conclusion always stalls. No one disputes the right to be a mother; no one knows what to do with the dirty part. Regulation turns the uterus into a factory with paperwork. Prohibition without alternatives pushes demand to the black market and countries where need is cheap. The figures are on the table. It remains to decide which of the two shames to choose.