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Looking for a
Surrogate Mother or an egg donor?
This book
is a moving real-life account of one woman's struggle
with infertility and her journey through surrogacy to
have the family she desperately wanted.
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Latest Surrogacy News
'Don't care about
DNA, baby's mine'
SEEMA I KAMDAR
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 09, 2004 04:18:04 AM ]
MUMBAI: Ankush Deshpande
and wife Sulabha are the adoptive parents of a child
concieved with one woman's egg and delivered by another.
Sulabha's tuberculosis and resultant infertility
prompted the couple to think about a surrogate mother.
"We discussed the issue for a year, and decided to go
ahead with it. But we did not want the same woman to
conceive the child as that could have led to an
emotional attachment and probably legal hassles. We
wanted to avoid all complications," says Ankush.
The couple therefore decided to settle on a donor egg.
"We still don't know whose egg it is, he grins, as the
identity of the donor has been kept secret by the
doctors to offset ownership claims."
Sulabha was content to know that she would be the mother
of the child. "It does not matter that the baby doesn't
have my DNA. What's important is that she's mine," she
says. When you love your partner so much, you don't
really mind it," intones her husband.
The hunt for a surrogate mother who would bear the child
ended with the consent of a 35-year-old distant relative
of Sulabha's who lived outside Mumbai and who had had
her own children. The deal was worked out between the
two parties by formally signing a contract that bestowed
on the Deshpande's all rights to the child and made them
financially accountable for her well-being and health
throughout her pregnancy.
This unique contract was finalised — on a stamp paper et
al — with the draft guidelines of the Indian Council of
Medical Research for infertility clinics serving as the
reference. All aspects concerning surrogacy are
explicitly explained in it, says Ankush.
An adoption formality is recommended for couples who
want to have a baby through a donor egg. Couples who go
through artificial insemination using their own egg and
sperm have natural rights to baby, so long as it can be
proved through DNA typing, says Dr Palshetkar.
Last year, the baby was conceived by fertilizing donor
egg with Ankush's sperm and implanting the embryo into
the womb of the surrogate mother. "We spent around Rs 1
lakh on her delivery," says Ankush.
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