They queue to donate their eggs and rent out their wombs. One payment can transform their lives The centre is run by Dr Shivani Gour, an Indian-educated doctor who trained for four years at the Hammersmith Hospital, London, and the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh. She employs 14 doctors and many more nurses and says the facilities are the equal of those anywhere in the world. Her books are full with details of young Indian women willing to either donate eggs or carry babies as surrogates, each for fees of about £6,000. Those who donate have their details meticulously recorded: their height, weight, and health history are all taken. Photographs are also included, but only from the neck down, and used in a catalogue for prospective parents. Unlike in Britain the egg donors" identity will never be known to their biological offspring; neither will the identity of the surrogate mothers who carry them to birth. Inevitably that can have difficult consequences for the women, who are provided with psychological counselling, and for those who act as surrogate mother there is also a year's free accommodation in Delhi and medical care. The women receive a sum of money that, even in India's booming economy, outstrips what they could hope to earn. Most are from villages outside Delhi or from the city's poorer areas. The prospect of earning five times the national average annual salary will transform their lives, and that of their own children. Most are already mothers. There is, however, a risk of stigma, and the women are aware that they have to be discreet about who knows they are acting as surrogates. When The Sunday Telegraph met Dr Gour, the hospital was crammed with both expectant surrogates and women who have visited to either register, or have fertilised eggs planted into their wombs. Most women seem happy as they wait to be examined. Waiting can sometimes take hours, but when The Sunday Telegraph was invited in, there was an atmosphere of satisfaction. In the previous hour six women had been impregnated with fertilised eggs. One, who was with her husband, said: "We are both very happy that we will give somebody the chance to be parents. We have a child and it is the greatest thing and this is a good way to make money to care for her when she grows up. One surrogate mother, carrying a baby for a Spanish couple, said: "The process is very simple and it takes a few hours each time. I have had an egg planted in me and I should deliver the baby on July 13. They don't tell us the sex of the child, but I feel it is a girl. I am seven months pregnant and I have to be careful now. My five-year-old daughter doesn't understand and jumped on me last week and I felt pain. I think this is a very nice thing for everybody involved. They [the Spanish couple] get their child and me, the egg donor and the hospital make some money. It is a business, but it brings so much happiness to so many people and I see nothing wrong with that. Many of the women I have spoken to are happy with the arrangements. Although we are careful not to tell anybody, except for our closest, as people can still give you trouble and say it is against God's will. The £6,000 that the surrogate mother will earn accounts for some, but not all of the fees. Dr Gour's clinic charges from £22,000 to £25,000, a figure that she says represents good value. "My hospital is an international hub and babies are born through our surrogacy arrangements almost on a daily basis," she said. I make it my target that whoever comes to me with the intention of a baby, leaves with a baby. In March alone there were 26 babies born: one to Britain, four to Australia, two to Canada, one to Ecuador, three to Japan, two to Spain, one to Slovenia and four staying in India, where surrogacy is growing among the middle class. Eight babies went to the US. Dr Gour is aware that critics might say it is wrong to turn surrogacy into a business - in Britain it is illegal to profit from such arrangements. But she said: "The positive side for India is that foreign exchange is coming to India and we are sending babies to people who cannot conceive all over the world. We are helping local woman who can then pay for their own children. In the past year she has overseen 300 births - some of them of twins - and says that as many as half of her clients are homosexual couples, many from Britain. They are overwhelmingly middle class, she says: "IT professionals, Home Office staff themselves, doctors from the NHS, people from multinationals, bankers, businessmen. The first thing they look into is adoption and foster care and they find that everything is so difficult and the pull of your own genetic child is so much that they look into surrogacy. Most of them will take eggs from our donors and some will take from international egg donors. When they hold the babies for the first time, they are blathering and crying and a little scared that if they hold their babies they will damage them. It is unbelievable to see their emotions. It is the best part of the job. Dr Gour acknowledges her work can elicit strong emotions but her riposte is simple: "I would say to those people who call what we do immoral, that I feel very sorry for you, God bless you, but you are ignorant. Come and spend a few months here and speak to parents who are so desperate and feel cursed by childlessness and see their ecstasy and see the men and women fulfilling their dreams here on a daily basis.