Surrogacy milieu in India: a legislative vacuum
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15587/2523-4153.2021.241240Keywords:
surrogacy, gestational surrogacy, altruistic, commercial surrogacy, Surrogacy bill, surrogate mother, intending couple, legal and ethical issues, international surrogacy, surrogacy regulationAbstract
Surrogacy gives hope to couples who are unable to carry child on their own. Single men, women and same-sex couples can also opt surrogacy to have their own genetic child. Surrogacy has adjourned the practice of adoption by childless couples who can bear the cost of surrogacy. Recent past has witnessed the blooming of surrogacy clinics all over the world. Eligibility of surrogates, process, legality and expenses, involved in surrogacy, differ from country to country. Most of the countries do not have surrogacy regulating legislation in force. Few countries prohibit surrogacy, while some ban commercial surrogacy and permits altruistic one. Even international surrogacy is not allowed in some jurisdictions. Easy availability and low costs of surrogacy procedures in developing countries have made surrogacy a lucrative business. India developed into a hub of commercial surrogacy with no harsh laws, regulating surrogacy clinics. Even though commercial surrogacy has been banned, still lack stringent laws, governing surrogacy clinics in the country, creating a legislative vacuum. Legal and ethical issues surrounding the surrogacy are also complex, thereby making it difficult to differentiate whether surrogacy is a boon or bane. The need of the hour is to legalize altruistic surrogacy and prohibit commercial one. Till laws being enacted and appropriate monitoring authorities are instituted, one has to assess with his/her conscience what is right and where wrong begins
References
- Shenfield, F., Pennings, G., Cohen, J., Devroey, P., de Wert, G., Tarlatzis, B. (2005). ESHRE Task Force on Ethics and Law 10: Surrogacy. Human Reproduction, 20 (10), 2705–2707. doi: http://doi.org/10.1093/humrep/dei147
- Oliphant, R. E. (2007). Surrogacy in Black Law Dictionary, Family Law. New York: Aspen Publishers, 349.
- Surrogate motherhood. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Available at: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/575390/surrogate-motherhood
- Patel, N., Jadeja, Y., Bhadarka, H., Patel, M., Patel, N., Sodagar, N. (2018). Insight into different aspects of surrogacy practices. Journal of Human Reproductive Sciences, 11 (3), 212–218. doi: http://doi.org/10.4103/jhrs.jhrs_138_17
- Saxena, P., Mishra, A., Malik, S. (2012). Surrogacy: Ethical and Legal Issues. Indian Journal of Community Medicine, 37 (4), 211–213. doi: http://doi.org/10.4103/0970-0218.103466
- Shetty, P. (2012). India's unregulated surrogacy industry. Lancet, 380 (9854), 1633–1634. doi: http://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(12)61933-3
- Council of Medical Research I. National Guidelines for Accreditation, Supervision and Regulation of ART Clinics in India – Draft (2002). New Delhi: National Academy of Medical Sciences. Available at: http://nascentivf.com/pdfs/B.%20ICMR%20GUIDELINES.pdf
- Dilip, R. (2008). The Draft ART Bill. Available at: https://lawandotherthings.com/2008/10/draft-art-bill-2008/
- Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, Indian Council of Medical Research. The Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) bill 2010 (2010). Available at: https://main.icmr.nic.in/sites/default/files/guidelines/ART%20REGULATION%20Draft%20Bill1.pdf
- The Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) bill 2014 (2014). Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. Available at: https://www.prsindia.org/uploads/media/draft/Draft%20Assisted%20Reproductive%20Technology%20(Regulation)%20Bill,%202014.pdf
- In the Supreme Court of Indiacivil Original Jurisdiction Writ Petition (C) NO. 369 OF 2008 (2008). Baby Manji Yamada vs Union of India and another. Supreme Court of India. Available at: http://oscpcr.nic.in/sites/default/files/baby_manji_yamada_vs_union_of_india_%26_anr_on_29_september,_2008.pdf
- Need for legislation to regulate assisted reproductive technology clinics as well as rights and obligations of parties to a surrogacy (2009). Law Commission of India. New Delhi: Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India. Report No. 228. Available at: http://lawcommissionofindia.nic.in/reports/report228.pdf
- India bans gay foreign couples from surrogacy (2013). Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/9811222/India-bans-gay-foreign-couples-from-surrogacy.html
- Bhalla, N., Thapliyal, M. (2013). India seeks to regulate its booming 'rent-a-womb' industry. Reuters. Available at https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-surrogates/india-seeks-to-regulate-its-booming-rent-a-womb-industry-idUSBRE98T07F20130930
- The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill (2016). PRS Legislative Research. Available at: https://www.prsindia.org/billtrack/surrogacy-regulation-bill-2016
- The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill (2019). PRS Legislative Research. Available at: https://www.prsindia.org/billtrack/surrogacy-regulation-bill-2019
- Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Rules (2014). Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Notification. New Delhi. Available at: https://main.mohfw.gov.in/sites/default/files/THOA-Rules-2014%20%281%29.pdf
- Arrangement of sections. The Companies Act (2013). Available at: https://www.mca.gov.in/Ministry/pdf/CompaniesAct2013.pdf
- Mohanty, P. (2019). The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2019: A casual approach to a serious concern. Available at: https://www.businesstoday.in/current/policy/surrogacy-regulation-bill-2019-infertility-indian-council-of-medical-research-icmr-surrogate-mothers-in-vitro-fertilisation-ivf/story/372797.html
- Select Committee Report Summary. The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill (2019). Available at: https://prsindia.org/files/bills_acts/bills_parliament/2019/Select%20Comm%20Report-%20Surrogacy%20Bill.pdf
- Surrogacy: legal rights of parents and surrogate. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/legal-rights-when-using-surrogates-and-donors
- No. 38 of 2005: Children's Act, 2005 (2006). Government Gazette. Republic of South Africa. Available at: https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201409/a38-053.pdf
- Australian Surrogacy Laws. Available at: https://www.iflg.net/australian-surrogacy-laws/
- Courduriès, J. (2018). At the nation's doorstep: the fate of children in France born via surrogacy. Reproductive Biomedicine & Society Online, 7, 47–54. doi: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.rbms.2018.11.003
- Germany debates legalizing egg donations and surrogacy (2019). Available at: https://www.thelocal.de/20190813/germany-debates-legalizing-egg-donations-and-surrogacy
- Salvador, Z., Packan, R. (2019). Is Surrogacy Legal in Russia? – Law, Cost & Requirements. BabygestEN. Available at: https://babygest.com/en/russia/
- International Surrogacy Laws. Ukranian Family Law. Available at: http://www.familylaw.com.ua/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=69&Itemid=99&lang=en#Belgium
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Yogita Dogra, Hitesh Chawla
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Our journal abides by the Creative Commons CC BY copyright rights and permissions for open access journals.
Authors, who are published in this journal, agree to the following conditions:
1. The authors reserve the right to authorship of the work and pass the first publication right of this work to the journal under the terms of a Creative Commons CC BY, which allows others to freely distribute the published research with the obligatory reference to the authors of the original work and the first publication of the work in this journal.
2. The authors have the right to conclude separate supplement agreements that relate to non-exclusive work distribution in the form in which it has been published by the journal (for example, to upload the work to the online storage of the journal or publish it as part of a monograph), provided that the reference to the first publication of the work in this journal is included.