by MARK MAGNIER
The Toronto couple wanted to save money, so they worked with an Indian clinic to have a child through a surrogate. Then, they say, came a sort of bait and switch. The clinic denies any wrongdoing.
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It should have been Myleen and Jan Sjodin’s greatest happiness. Their newborn was healthy, they were in exotic India and, following Myleen’s uterine cancer, their surrogacy was successful.
Instead, the Toronto couple claim, it all turned into a nightmare as the doctor hiked her fees just before the baby was born, hitting them at their psychologically weakest point. She also didn’t pay outside hospital bills and tried to use India’s infamous bureaucracy to delay their homecoming, the couple say.
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Some of the biggest problems involve citizenship. In 2008, “baby Manji” was left stateless after a Japanese couple divorced in the middle of the surrogate pregnancy, and Tokyo refused to recognize the infant after the mother gave her up. And last year, a Canadian couple were shocked when a required DNA test found surrogate twins weren’t biologically theirs.
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Diksha Gurung, 28, sits nearby in an embroidered black sari, her stomach bulging with the twins she’s carrying for a Japanese couple, her second surrogacy. She’ll earn $7,500 for nine months’ work, allowing her to buy a house, motorbike and English-language education for her sons.
“When I first considered this, my husband was furious and the neighbors appalled, thinking you sleep with the foreigners,” she said. “But I explained the process, and now several in my neighborhood are surrogates.”
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