India, Surrogacy

India – There is a dire need to regulate fertility clinics

Source The Hans India

Recently, the Department of Health Research (DHR), under the Union Health Ministry, has constituted the National Assisted Reproductive Technology and Surrogacy Board (NARTSB) headed by the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare as the chairperson. The constitution of the Board is part of the implementation of the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021 and the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021 to regulate Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) clinics, banks and surrogacy in the country.

The ART (Regulation) Act was notified by the Central government on December 21, 2021and the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act was notified on December 25, 2021. Under the Act, the NARTSB has powers to advise the Central government on policy matters relating to the ART, to review and monitor the implementation of the Act, rules and regulations, to lay down code of conduct to be observed by persons working at clinics and banks, to set the minimum standards of physical infrastructure, laboratory and diagnostic equipment and expert manpower to be employed by the clinics and banks. The board also has to oversee the performance of various bodies constituted under the Act and supervise the functioning of the National Registry and liaison with the State Boards and pass orders as per the provisions made under the Act.

Read more

India, Law, Surrogacy

India – Delhi HC seeks Centre’s response on plea challenging validity of Surrogacy law

Source The Siasat Daily

Read more

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday sought the response of the Centre on a plea challenging the constitutional validity of provisions of the Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021, and the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021.

Issuing notice in the matter, a bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Sachin Datta asked the government to file a reply within six weeks and posted the matter for further hearing on November 19.

The petition was filed by Karan Balraj Mehta, a single unmarried man and a lawyer by profession, and Dr Pankhuri Chandra, a married woman teaching Psychology in a private school.

India, Surrogacy, Surrogate Mother

India – Health Matters: Dashing Hopes of Parenthood, New Surrogacy Policy Likely to Create Illicit Baby Market

Source News 18

Surrogacy was back in the news after celebrity Priyanka Chopra announced the birth of her daughter via a surrogate mother. The concept of having a baby through surrogacy is usually linked to celebrities.

A person who hasn’t yet faced an incurable infertility issue may not know that thousands of Indian couples from humble backgrounds resort to the option of having their own biological child via a surrogate mother every year.

For couples who were planning to opt for it, the New Year started on a dismal note, as India banned commercial surrogacy, apart from introducing several other regulations.

Read more

India, Surrogacy, Surrogate Mother

India – The ART of surrogacy

Source

The purpose of the ART Bill is to address the gaps that exist in the industry and protect women and children from exploitation, writes Dr Rita Bakshi.

Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) includes all techniques that attempt to obtain a pregnancy by handling the sperm or the oocyte outside the human body and transferring the gamete or the embryo into the reproductive go together. To undergo an ART treatment, a surrogate is involved in case the woman is not medically fit to bear the baby.

Read more

India, Law, Surrogacy

India’s new surrogacy laws could limit chances for some would-be parents

Source The National News

Seven months after their only daughter died during the coronavirus pandemic, Indian couple Sabu Thomas and Jean George were hoping to fill a void through surrogacy.

But their dreams of having a child have hit a dead end under India’s new surrogacy laws, aimed at regulating the country’s once booming rent-a-womb industry that earned it the sobriquet of “world’s baby factory”.

Mr Thomas, 52, and Ms George, 47, from Pathanamthitta in southern Kerala state, lost their 20-year-old daughter Nova Sabu in August to brain hemorrhage, caused by what they claim was an adverse reaction to the Covid-19 vaccine.

Read more

India, Surrogacy

Is the new law a death knell for the surrogacy industry in India?

Source Times of India

Ratna and Vijay (names changed) were married in 2017 and despite a blissful marriage of 2 years, they were unsuccessful in getting pregnant. Upon tests, doctors discovered a uterus complication that would not allow Ratna to become a mother. Amongst the options available, the distressed couple chose to give birth to a child through the gift of surrogacy. Today, Ratna and Vijay are delighted parents of twin sons and are thankful to their invisible surrogate for the blessing of a lifetime. Surrogacy gave hope to childless couples to still have children with their blood and DNA through advanced technology. Lesser interference from the government, bureaucracy and local administration since 2002 has led the surrogacy market to boom.

Read more

India, Surrogacy

India – ‘Those who used surrogacy should lab-check their child’s genes’

Source Mid-Day

National award-winning writer Pinki Virani has been a trenchant observer of the ‘commodification of babies, the ruthlessness of the fertility-industry on women’s bodies and its resultant reduction of motherhood’ in India. Last week, the central government notified the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act 2021 and the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act 2021. These hope to regulate in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) clinics and prohibit commercial surrogacy or ‘wombs-on-hire’. It does allow altruistic surrogacy where the birth-mother, a relative of the couple, is to be covered on all medical and insurance expenditure. Since the patriarchal pressure continues to be very real, especially upon women, of ensuring a child, critics fear that commercial surrogacy is likely to go underground.

Read more

India, Surrogacy

India – It’s time for the World Health Organization to call for a worldwide ban on commercial surrogacyIt’s time for the World Health Organization to call for a worldwide ban on commercial surrogacy

Source Mercatornet

Last month the Government of India promulgated two important laws which were many years in the making about surrogacy and assisted reproductive technology (ART). In doing so, India has taken a long-awaited stand against commercial surrogacy and the sale of sperm and eggs. Below are excerpts from an interview with Pinki Virani, an award-winning author-activist who divides her time between Canada and India. Her research in her book Politics of the Womb: The Perils of IVF & Surrogacy, contributed to the framing of these laws.

Read more

India, Surrogacy

India – Winter Session: Parliament passes Surrogacy Bill amid uproar

Source Business Standard

Last week, Rajya Sabha passed the bill after amendments, and returned it to Lok Sabha on December 14.

The bill aims to constitute a National Surrogacy Board and state surrogacy boards, and appoint appropriate authorities for regulation of the practice and process of surrogacy.

It was earlier passed by Lok Sabha on August 5, 2019, and transmitted to Rajya Sabha for its concurrence. The Rajya Sabha sent the bill to the select committee for further deliberation.

Lok Sabha passed the amended bill amid uproar by opposition members demanding the removal of the minister whose son Ashish Mishra is among the accused in the October 3 Lakhimpur Kheri violence in Uttar Pradesh.

Read more

India, Surrogacy

India – What is IVF Regulation Bill and How it Protects Rights of Donors, Couples

Source Sakshi Post

ART and Surrogacy Bills: After passing the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill two years ago, the Lok Sabha has now passed the Assisted Reproductive Technology Regulation Bill. What is the change, and how is ART to be regulated under the new Bill?

The Assisted Reproductive Technology Regulation Bill, 2020, was passed by the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, providing for the safe and ethical practice of assisted reproductive technology (ART) services in the country.

The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019, was enacted by the Lok Sabha on August 5, 2019, to protect women’s reproductive rights. This one was referred to a Select Committee, which advised that the ART Bill be introduced first, so that the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019, could cover all of the highly technical and medical concerns.

Read more

India, Scam, Surrogacy

India – Fake surrogacy scam busted: 5-member gang arrested, 11 children rescued, 18 more to be tracked in Karnataka

Source Newsable

The Bengaluru’s South Division Police managed to bust a well-networked five-member gang that was running a surrogacy racket and cheated childless couples.

The gang involving five members consists of two women and three men. According to reports, two of them are working as a nurse and one as a compounder at a private hospital.

Seeing the desperation among childless couples, the gang members used to look for gullible ones and then track them from fertility centers and source their contacts and later used to give them offers.

Meanwhile, some from the team used to scout for poor and helpless families that are willing to sell their newborn and little old babies.

Read more

India, Surrogacy

India – A Controversial Ban on Commercial Surrogacy Could Leave Women in India With Even Fewer Choices

Source Time com

It’s nearly noon when Pinky Macwan wakes up and rubs her eyes, shifting uncomfortably. She’s in her second trimester of pregnancy with twins and finds herself constantly sluggish. Still in her floral nightgown, she walks down the fluorescent-lit hallway and splashes cold water on her face in the bathroom she shares with 46 other women, all surrogates at various stages of pregnancy. It’s late February, and Macwan has spent the past four months living in the basement of the Akanksha Hospital in bustling Anand, a town in the western Indian state of Gujarat. Home to the headquarters of the major dairy cooperative Amul, Anand has long been known as the milk capital of India. But booming business at Akanksha has also garnered the town another label: India’s baby factory.

Read more

Employee Benefits, India, Surrogacy

India – ‘Can’t Deny Maternity Leave To Surrogate Mothers, To Distinguish Is Insulting Womanhood’: Himachal Pradesh HC

Source The Logical Indian

The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Thursday, March 4, ruled that a woman employee cannot be refused maternity leave even if she becomes a mother through surrogacy.

Image Credits: The Times of India

The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Thursday, March 4, ruled that a woman employee cannot be refused maternity leave even if she becomes a mother through surrogacy.

A division bench consisting of justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan and justice Sandeep Sharma issued the order on the petition filed by a woman language teacher employed on contract in Kullu district.

Read more

COVID-19, India, Surrogacy

India – COVID-19 lockdown: NRI couple still waiting to meet baby born through surrogacy

Source Mathrubhumi

Varappuzha: A mother’s long wait carrying the dreams of two strangers in her womb has come to an end finally. But the little baby girl is still waiting for her parents having no clue when they will be able to come back. Unfortunately, the restrictions made as part of the coronavirus prevention came in the way of a family’s dream.

Read more

India, Surrogacy

India to bring new Surrogacy Bill allowing widows and divorced women to be a surrogate mothers

Source PGURUS

India has come up with a new Surrogacy Bill which allows any “willing” woman to be a surrogate mother and proposes that widows and divorced women can also benefit from its provisions, besides infertile Indian couples. The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Feb 26 approved the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2020 approving all suggestions of the Parliament’s Selection Committee.

The bill incorporates all recommendations made by a Rajya Sabha selection committee, which studied an earlier version of the draft legislation, and is aimed at banning commercial surrogacy and allowing altruistic surrogacy, said Union Ministers Prakash Javadekar and Smriti Irani briefing media about the new details of the bill.

Read more

India, Surrogacy

India’s move to ban commercial surrogacy sends industry into panic

Source Strait Times

On Aug 5, the Lower House of Parliament passed the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill to ban commercial surrogacy, allowing only altruistic surrogacy and, even then, by only a blood relation.PHOTO: ST FILE

Ms Geeta Parmal built a house with the money she was paid for her first surrogate pregnancy, and the 31-year-old plans to pay off a house loan and move her own two children from a government school to a private one with the money she will be paid for the second surrogate child she is currently carrying.

However, Ms Parmal, who comes from a poor family in the western Indian state of Gujarat, is wondering what will happen to the second surrogate child she is carrying, with the government moving ahead to ban commercial surrogacy.

Read more

India, Surrogacy

India – A Lawyer Tells Us All We Need To Know About The Surrogacy Bill

Source Inuth

As the nation debated the implications of diluting Article 370, Lok Sabha passed the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill. Though the Supreme Court declared surrogacy to be legal in 2002, it has remained unregulated. The practice picked up in the 1990s when foreigners started coming to India.

According to Gargi Mishra, a gender rights lawyer with Sama Resource Group for Women and Health,

Read more

India, Surrogacy

India – Ekta Kapoor is a Mom to a Baby Boy Via Surrogacy

Source Fit

Ekta Kapoor, the giant of Television Entertainment, is a mom to a baby boy. Following in her brother Tushar Kapoor’s footsteps, she welcomed the baby via a surrogate, reports Mumbai Mirror.

Tushar Kapoor’s son Lakshya was born in 2017. Other members of the film fraternity who have welcomed children via surrogacy include Karan Johar, Shah Rukh Khan, Lisa Ray, Sunny Leone among others.

Read more

India, Surrogacy

India – Couples ready to challenge Surrogacy Bill

Source New Indian Express

BENGALURU: Couples who had pinned hopes on surrogacy as an option to become parents are now planning to go to court to challenge the newly passed Surrogacy Bill. The bill says only legally married couples who have been medically proven infertile can opt for surrogacy. It bans commercial surrogacy, and allows only “altruistic surrogacy”.“The bill basically has tried to ensure that people trying to misuse surrogacy commercially should be curbed. But the Bill has many loopholes which has to be addressed, otherwise many couples will lose their chance of being parents,” said Dr B Ramesh, IVF and infertility specialist.

Meanwhile, Sarika N A and Govind Bhat, software professionals who have been married for six years, and who were thinking of surrogacy as an option have now decided to talk to associations concerned to take the matter legally.“We had almost finalised on this process with our doctor and now we are shocked with this bill. It is ridiculous. How can government interfere into someone’s personal choices? Which relative would agree to bear the whole of pregnancy? We will definitely go to court against this and also explore other options,” said Sarika.

Read more

India, Surrogacy Benefits

India – BMC leave for mom-through-surrogacy

Source DNA India

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), in a pioneering move, has decided to grant special maternity leave to an employee who became a mother via surrogacy.

In line with the state government’s circular from the General Administration Department dated November 9, 2016, it is binding on the civic body to grant special leave of 180 days for woman employees to take care of their children born from surrogacy. The decision was implemented from January 2016.

Though the employee was eligible for leave, her application was rejected because she didn’t apply in advance, which is mandatory for special leave. She applied again on 7th March 2018 and the civic administration requested BMC’s General Assembly to sanction the leave on humanitarian grounds.

Read more