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A childless Singapore couple's prayers for a baby have been answered, thanks to a woman in India who reportely rented her womb to them for about 6,600 US dollars.

A pregnant woman undergoing an exam in India
© AFP/File

Indian doctors implanted an embryo formed from the man's sperm and his wife's egg into the surrogate mother's uterus and she carried the foetus for a full term, the Straits Times reported.

The surrogate mum gave birth to a baby boy on Friday at a hospital in Mumbai. The baby was immediately handed to the Chinese couple, both Singapore permanent residents, who had flown there to get the child.

The couple, both in their mid-30s, were unable to conceive due to the wife's medical problems.

They tried in-vitro fertilization five times before turning to the prospect of a surrogate birth in India, where the process is much cheaper than the United States, the report said.

Gautam Allahbadia, chief consultant at the Dr L.H. Hiranandani Centre for Human Reproduction in Mumbai, told the Straits Times his hospital advertised for a surrogate mother in local newspapers on behalf of the Singapore couple as such women are "always in short supply".

A housewife and mother of two answered the advertisement, saying she will use the fee to pay for her own children's education.

Allahbadia said the newborn boy is genetically Chinese and looks like his genetic mother. The couple are having a DNA check to ensure that theirs matched that of the baby before flying back to the city-state, the report said.

Legal experts quoted by the report said the couple should be able to obtain permanent residency for their baby here if they can prove they are the genetic parents.

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