Priyanka Sharma | Livemint | June 23, 2022
Couples in India who wish to start a family through surrogacy must purchase health insurance for their surrogate to cover pregnancy complications for a period of 36 months after giving birth from an accredited insurance company.
Charu Sudan Kasturi | Business Insider | June 8, 2022
India’s commercial surrogacy ban may be driving intended parents to Georgia, where commercial surrogacy is not only legal but also relatively inexpensive. Georgia’s laws also favor intended parents, because the surrogate has no legal parentage rights to the child.
Amrit Dhillon | South China Morning Post | April 16, 2022
The Surrogacy (Regulation) Act outlawed commercial surrogacy in India in December 2021. Though some worry about the emergence of a black market, Dr. Manish Banker argues that the law is fair and protects surrogates and newborns.
Aastha Atray Banan | Mid-Day | February 6, 2022
India recently passed new Surrogacy and ART Acts, banning commercial surrogacy and germline cell sales, respectively. In this interview, author Pinki Virani acknowledges that the acts will promote a more regulated, less money-oriented fertility industry by eliminating the sale-purchase aspect of sperm and eggs and putting power in the hands of surrogates. On the other hand, Virani believes that there are still risks with IVF and third-party reproduction due to the complexity of sourcing sex cells, fertilization, implantation, and birth. In particular, she urges patients to undergo thorough screening processes to reduce the risk of genetic siblings unknowingly becoming a couple.
Sarah Pritchard | BioNews | December 13, 2021
The Indian Parliament approved legislation to better regulate fertility and surrogacy practices in the country and protect the health of women involved. The Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill 2021 aims to maintain a standard of infrastructure, equipment, and personnel at fertility clinics. The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2020 proposes increased health insurance coverage to 36 months, prohibits paid surrogacy, and allows divorced or widowed women to have children through surrogacy. Criticism of the bills highlight the lack of inclusion of single parents and LGBTQ+ communities.
Priyanka A Chokhani | Times of India | September 2, 2021
When the first wave of COVID-19 cases surged in India, small business owners and laid-off employees pawned their valuables to buy food and repay debts. When the second wave hit, there was nothing left to sell. Many women became egg donors or surrogates to help pay for family expenses. A doctor at one fertility center said, “Inquiries from women wanting to become surrogates have increased up to 10-fold during the pandemic.” Meanwhile, a proposed bill banning commercial surrogacy is under review.
Staff | Times of India | August 12, 2021
A Bollywood film titled Mimi is about a woman agreeing to be a surrogate mother for an American couple, who decides to violate the contract and leave the baby with the woman. Initially, the audience appreciated that the movie was spreading awareness about a stigmatized topic. Recently, however, others on social media have expressed disappointment in the film’s complete misrepresentation of national surrogacy regulations and qualifications in place that protect the surrogate mother and prevent the scenario that Mimi depicts. Doctor Yuvraj criticizes that the writers used foul language to paint surrogacy in a negative and insensitive manner without doing their due diligence in researching facts about India’s laws first.
Ellen Trachman | Above The Law | July 14, 2021
This case involves a Canadian couple struggling with infertility who had attempted unsuccessfully multiple times to conceive via IVF and surrogacy in India. The husband had an affair with a woman, who later entered an unsupervised surrogacy agreement with the couple. After various attempts to conceive, the woman eventually gave birth to a child with her donated egg and the husband’s sperm through a disputed method. In 2020, she demanded more compensation and parenting time with the child, eventually filing a legal case. So far, the court has classified her as a nonguardian and deemed her request harmful to the child, and the case will go to trial in January 2022.
Bindu Shajan Perappadan | The Hindu | March 20, 2021
In India, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare issued a report recommending that the 2020 version of the Assisted Reproduction Technology (ART) Bill exclude unmarried and same-sex couples from use of ART, arguing that would be in the best interest of the children born through those services. The Committee also suggested that the government make IVF more accessible to poor communities by opening ART facilities at every medical institute and premier hospital. The report notes the urgent need for regulation and monitoring to prevent uncontrolled commercialization of the ART industry in India.
TelanganaToday | September 3, 2020
Universal Srushti Fertility Hospital faces charges for allegedly cheating a couple, PV Sathyanarayana and his wife Sulakshna Rani, who were engaged in a surrogacy agreement. The Hyderabad-based clinic assured the couple they could pick up their child in June, accepting significant payments in advance. Well after the delivery date, the clinic claimed that the surrogate mother had contracted COVID-19 and died, stating that they would start the process with a new surrogate. The couple filed a complaint after they learned that two doctors in charge of the hospital were arrested on child trafficking charges.
