Surrogacy in India

Surrogacy in India and Indian surrogates became increasingly popular amongst intended parents in industrialised nations because of the relatively low costs and easy access offered by Indian surrogacy agencies.[1] Clinics charged patients between $10,000 and $28,000 for the complete package, including fertilization, the surrogate's fee, and delivery of the baby at a hospital.[2] Including the costs of flight tickets, medical procedures and hotels, this represented roughly a third of the price of the procedure in the UK and a fifth of that in the US.[3][4] Surrogate mothers received medical, nutritional and overall health care through surrogacy agreements.[5][6]

In 2005, the government approved the 2002 draft of the National Guidelines for the Accreditation, Supervision and Regulation of ART Clinics in India, in 2002.[7] Before commercial surrogacy was banned in 2015, India was a popular destination for surrogacy. The economic scale of surrogacy in India is unknown, but study backed by the United Nations in July 2012 estimated the business at more than $400 million a year, with over 3,000 fertility clinics across India.[8]

In 2013, surrogacy by foreign homosexual couples and single parents was banned.[9] In 2015, the government banned commercial surrogacy in India and permitted entry of embryos only for research purposes.[7] Shortly thereafter in 2016, a Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill[10] was introduced and passed by Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament, proposing to permit only heterosexual Indian couples married for at least five years with infertility problems to access altruistic or unpaid surrogacy and thereby further banning commercial surrogacy.[11] The 2016 bill lapsed owing to the adjournment sine die of the parliament session.[12] The bill was reintroduced and passed by the Lok Sabha in 2019.[13][14] The bill would require to be passed by the Rajya Sabha, upper house of the Indian parliament and presidential assent before it becomes an act and thereby a law.[15]

  1. ^ Shetty, Priya (10 November 2018). "India's unregulated surrogacy industry" (PDF). World Report. 380: 1663–1664.
  2. ^ "16 Things You Should Know About IVF Treatment". Fight Your Infertility. 22 January 2016. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  3. ^ Kannan, Shilpa. "Regulators Eye India's Surrogacy Sector" Archived 6 April 2010 at the Wayback Machine. India Business Report, BBC World. Retrieved 23 March 2009.
  4. ^ See:
  5. ^ Kannan, Shilpa (18 March 2009). "Regulators eye India's surrogacy sector". India Business Report. BBC World. Archived from the original on 6 April 2010. Retrieved 18 November 2009.
  6. ^ The Associated Press (31 December 2007). "Indian women carrying babies for well-off buyers, 'Wombs for rent' pleases women and customers, but raises ethical questions". CBC News. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 13 August 2016. Retrieved 24 May 2017.
  7. ^ a b Timms, Olinda (5 March 2018). Ghoshal, Rakhi (ed.). "Ending commercial surrogacy in India: significance of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016". Indian Journal of Medical Ethics. 3 (2): 99–102. doi:10.20529/IJME.2018.019. PMID 29550749.
  8. ^ Bhalla, Nita; Thapliyal, Mansi (30 September 2013). "India seeks to regulate its booming surrogacy industry". Medscape. Reuters Health Information. Archived from the original on 16 February 2021. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
  9. ^ "India bans gay foreign couples from surrogacy". Daily Telegraph. 18 January 2013. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  10. ^ "The Surrogacy Regulation Bill (No. 257), 2016". PRS Legislative Research. 20 September 2019. Archived from the original on 20 April 2019. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  11. ^ "Lok Sabha passes Surrogacy Bill". The Hindu Business Online. 19 December 2018. Archived from the original on 16 February 2021. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  12. ^ Srivastava, Ananya (14 February 2019). "Explained: Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, triple talaq bill among 46 draft laws set to lapse as Parliament adjourns sine die". Firstpost. Archived from the original on 31 May 2019. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  13. ^ "The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill (No. 156), 2019". PRS Legislative Research. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  14. ^ "Lok Sabha passes Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill". The Hindu. 5 August 2019. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  15. ^ Bhandare, Namita (20 September 2019). "The abolition of choice". LiveMint. Retrieved 20 September 2019.