IF nothing else, the conduct and background of surrogate mother Karen Roche, who lied that she had aborted the child she was carrying for a Dutch couple, demands that tighter controls on surrogacy should be brought in.

For the revelations of her past as a topless kissogram girl, her having an affair with an 18-year-old neighbour and confessions on a TV show that she was obsessed with cleaning bring into question what sort of vetting procedures exist among surrogacy agencies of "host" mothers.

But in addition to this, many would question - or at least see a need for greater regulation of - the surrogacy business on purely ethical grounds. For even if we could be sure that all such transactions were not tainted with commercialism, but were done purely altruistically to help desperate, childless couples fulfil their dreams of becoming parents, the process still involves what for many is the unnatural and immoral business of "womb renting." Inevitably, it leads those involved into a complicated legal and moral minefield.

Apart from the dangers of couples being financially exploited by surrogate mothers whose main concern may be the amount of "expenses" they may receive for their services, there is the risk of the host mother becoming so attached to the child she is carrying for someone else that she refuses to part with it, adding to the anguish of the childless partners in the deal.

And, in reverse, surrogate mothers themselves may face a lifetime of regret at setting out nobly to help the childless and then having to part with "her" baby, the child she has instinctively come to love during pregnancy.

There are too many pitfalls about the whole situation for it to be subject to the loose regulation that currently exists. Little wonder that, in the light of the Karen Roche case, doctors are now calling for tighter laws.

It may be too much to outlaw the practice completely, as in most countries. For in addition to the difficulties of policing such a ban, legal prohibition might only drive surrogacy underground to a level where exploitive commercialism overtakes all compassion.

But, evidently, more controls are required than at present, not least in the regulation and monitoring of surrogacy agencies and the payment of expenses.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.