Source Mid-Day
National award-winning writer Pinki Virani has been a trenchant observer of the âcommodification 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 âwombs-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.
