My daughter has one very realistic she loves it I wouldn't buy for an adult etc but as my daughter is 10 and baby born dolls don't seem to cut it any more x 

My sister makes them and they help with depression and anxiety along with other disorders but my sister has one to help cope with her miscarriage but my 10 year old also has one to play with 

I think it's creepy when people treat them as real babies. I understand it's got to be very hard when people who really want kids and can't have them but when I see someone treating one of those dolls as a real child I think that mentally there's got to be something wrong. As for the purpose of them, when I was in public school (very long time ago) they had dolls like this that we had to take care of in home-ec (sp?) class. Not only did it give us sort of the "basics" of how to take care of an infant it also showed us a little bit of how difficult and demanding it can be.  

Those fake babies that look real?! Oh my god. They freak me out. Personally I think it's done and maybe soothing for women who can't have children.. Maybe I don't know. They look so real and people treat them real. There's so many weird YouTube videos for it.

I think the purpose of these dolls is to be purchased by people who want them because owning one makes them happy. It's the same reason you buy the knick-knacks you keep at your house.