Japan's surrogate mothers emerge from shadows

By Chisa Fujioka

TOKYO (Reuters) - A young woman cradles her baby boy, born from a surrogate mother, and describes how she stuffed fabric in her clothes to fake pregnancy so her neighbors would not know, a sign of the stigma surrounding surrogacy in Japan.

The woman's own mother bore the baby for her daughter, who was unable to bear children of her own because she had no uterus.

"The doctors said she should train for a profession, be a career woman and not think about marriage," the woman's mother, her face hidden, tells a TV program on surrogacy.

"This made me sad. As a woman, I wanted her to have the same experience as me, to have a baby".

Japanese parents of surrogate children are beginning to break their silence amid a debate over surrogate births as Japan's government considers banning the practice.

Surrogate motherhood is currently prohibited for commercial purposes in Australia, Spain and China. It is allowed with restrictions in the United States, France and Germany.

Japanese obstetricians adopted a ban against surrogate births in 1983, but there is no binding law and some couples have had children through surrogate mothers with the help of a doctor in central Japan who is defying domestic medical circles.

Such births, along with a trend for couples to go abroad in search of surrogate mothers, have prompted the government to consider regulations. Opposition to a ban is strong and it is expected to take years before legislation is enacted.