Tag: India

Article: India Outlawed Commercial Surrogacy – Clinics Are Finding Loopholes

India Outlawed Commercial Surrogacy – Clinics Are Finding Loopholes
By Sharmila Rudrappa | The Conversation | Oct. 23, 2017

This roundup of the legal status of commercial surrogacy in India studies the effectiveness of bans, the responsive agility of surrogacy providers, and the ultimate impact on the human rights of gestational mothers.

Authored by Sharmila Rudrappa, a respected researcher and author in the field, it presents current arguments for and against criminalization. Exploring altruistic surrogacy, which is the only arrangement allowed in India at this time, the article ends with important questions on whether gestational mothers would be better protected if commercial transactions were toughly regulated rather than outlawed.

Read the full article >

Report: The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016

The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016
By PRS Legislative Research | 2016

In case there were any doubts, this short overview of the regulation in India is a helpful crib sheet on the legal status of commercial surrogacy in the country. Three main conditions included in the bill include:

  • The intending couple must be Indian citizens and married for at least five years with at least one of them being infertile.  The surrogate mother has to be a close relative who has been married and has had a child of her own.
  • No payment other than reasonable medical expenses can be made to the surrogate mother.  The surrogate child will be deemed to be the biological child of the intending couple.
  • Central and state governments will appoint appropriate authorities to grant eligibility certificates to the intending couple and the surrogate mother.  These authorities will also regulate surrogacy clinics.

Read the full overview and analysis >

For background and information on preceding legislation (2012), read BioNews on visa restrictions imposed by the Indian government on foreign intended parents.

Film: Can We See the Baby Bump Please?

Can We See the Baby Bump Please?
Director: Surabhi Sharma | 2013

Can We See the Baby Bump Please

“Can We See the Baby Bump Please?” is a detailed exploration of commercial surrogacy in India. It includes interviews with gestational mothers, providing rare and important glimpses into their lives and the contexts within which they make the decision to enter surrogacy relationships. The film was produced by Sama Resource Group for Women and Health, one of Surrogacy360’s global partners.

From film director Surabhi Sharma’s website:

The global reach of medical tourism and commercial surrogacy spawns a range of clinics and practices across big cities and small towns in India. Anonymous, often with limited choice, woman’s labour is yet again pushed into the background. A whiff of immorality, the absence of regulation and the erasure of the surrogate’s experience collude to produce a climate of callousness. May we see the baby bump please? meets with surrogates, doctors, law firms,agents, and family in an attempt to understand the context of surrogacy in India.

For more information on the film, including a link to purchase, visit Magic Lantern Movies.

Plus: Following a screening of “Can We See the Baby Bump Please?” at Harvard University in 2015, Judy Norsigian, co-founder and former executive director of Our Bodies Ourselves, and I. Glenn Cohen, faculty director of the Petrie-Flom Center and a professor at Harvard Law School, discussed the legal and human rights issues surrounding surrogacy and egg donation in a global context:

Article: Republic of Unreason

Republic of Unreason
By Suhrith Parthasarathy | The Hindu | Sept. 1, 2016

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Now, there is little doubting that any reasonable government ought to concern itself at some level with the ethics of procreation, especially given the power equations at play in a contract of surrogacy. But is a complete proscription on commercial surrogacy a neutral position to take?

Framed by the death of a 30-year-old gestational mother in India in 2011, and the contract she signed agreeing to life support in order to protect the fetus in the event of life-threatening injury in the third trimester, this opinion article provides a critique of the Indian government’s recent ban on all commercial surrogacy.

Suhrith Parthasarathy comments on the requirements articulated in the new law — for intended parents, gestational mothers, and the money exchanged in between — highlighting flawed assumptions made by the bill and its “violation” of the constitutional pledge of equal treatment.

Read the full article >

Article: Ban on Foreign Nationals for Surrogacy a Blow

Ban on Foreign Nationals for Surrogacy a Blow
By Rajitha S. | The New Indian Express | Aug. 5, 2016

This is one of many articles that covers the Indian government’s recent attempt to restrict surrogacy to an “altruistic deed.” The new legislation will limit arrangements to a gestational mother’s “blood relations, family, community, country,” thereby excluding all foreigners.

The Group of Ministers (GoM), set up at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has also decided to bar single and gay couples from seeking arrangements with gestational mothers, and only allow surrogacy for Indian citizens that are married and infertile. These – and other protections – are, according to sources cited in the article, designed to ensure the normal biological function of a woman’s body is no longer commercialized. Read the full article >

Additional reading:

Article: Surrogacy May Soon Be Confined to Kith and Kin

Surrogacy May Soon Be Confined to Kith and Kin
By Teena Thacker | The Asian Age | Aug. 7, 2016

This article – one of many – reports on the Indian government’s recent attempt to restrict surrogacy to an “altruistic deed.” The new legislation will limit arrangements to a gestational mother’s “blood relations, family, community, country,” thereby excluding all foreigners.

The Group of Ministers (GoM), set up at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has also decided to bar single and gay couples from seeking arrangements with gestational mothers, and only allow surrogacy for Indian citizens that are married and infertile. These – and other protections – are, according to sources cited in the article, designed to ensure the normal biological function of a woman’s body is no longer commercialized.

Read the full article >

Read other articles following recent legislative developments in India >

Article: After Nepal, Indian Surrogacy Clinics Move to Cambodia

After Nepal, Indian Surrogacy Clinics Move to Cambodia
By Nilanjana Bhowmick | Al Jazeera | June 28, 2016

“There is no legislation protecting the rights of the surrogate, child or intended parents … The ban [in India] will push intended parents to engage in far riskier places like Cambodia, where there is a serious lack of medical support services, such as neonatal care units.” – Sam Everingham, Families through Surrogacy

This article follows surrogacy’s expansion into Cambodia, after recent legal crackdowns in the region. With ongoing legislative attempts in India as backdrop, it focuses on the rise of clinics originally from India and Nepal, the movement of gestational mothers from these countries as well as Laos and Thailand into Cambodia, and the implications on risks and the human rights of the women involved.

Read the full article >

Article: The Billion Dollar Babies

Logo of Phnom Penh Post newspaperThe Billion Dollar Babies
By Vandy Muong and Will Jackson | The Phnom Penh Post | Jan. 2, 2016

With commercial surrogacy banned in India, Nepal, and Thailand, this article takes a closer look at Cambodia as the next destination. It explores the legal and ethical status of the practice, concluding on a message of “buyer beware” as people considering surrogacy are warned about the risks of not being able to take children home or being charged with human trafficking.

Read the full article >

Talk: The Politics of Renting Wombs

What’s Love Got to Do With It? The Politics of Renting Wombs
Michele Goodwin | June 14, 2016

In a talk delivered at the Women Deliver 2016 Global Conference, Michele Goodwin, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, draws on her experience in India to discuss the impact of commercial surrogacy on gestational mothers. Her comments are situated within a broader context – the transnational reach of ARTs, and how these technologies feed on and create global inequity and collide with concepts such as “love” and “sisterhood.”

Goodwin is also the director of the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy and author of “Baby Markets: Money and The New Politics of Creating Families.”

Article: The Dwindling Options for Surrogacy Abroad

The Dwindling Options for Surrogacy Abroad
By Danielle Preiss and Pragati Shahi | The Atlantic | May 31, 2016

This comprehensive article covers international commercial surrogacy laws around the world, with emphasis on and the implications of recent legal changes in India, Thailand, and Nepal. It follows an Australian couple, forbidden from paying gestational mothers in their own country, on a journey that spans Israel (the location of their agency), India (where their gestational mother lives), and Nepal (where she travels for embryo transfer and the birth) — with helpful insights on the effects of such arrangements on the children that are caught in the middle.

Read the full article >