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Cabinet clears Bill to ban commercial surrogacy
The Union cabinet cleared the draft surrogacy regulation Bill, 2016 on Wednesday that aims to ban all commercial surrogacy, which many say leads to the exploitation of poor women, who agree to become surrogate mothers for money.
New Delhi: The Union cabinet cleared the draft surrogacy regulation Bill, 2016 on Wednesday that aims to ban all commercial surrogacy, which many say leads to the exploitation of poor women, who agree to become surrogate mothers for money.
The law also bans unmarried people, live-in couples and gay couples from opting for altruistic surrogacy. It allows only Indian couples married for at least five years to have children through surrogacy.
Couples, especially foreigners, desperate for a biological child, and infertility experts losing business to other countries like Ukraine and Georgia where commercial surrogacy is legal, are expectedly against it, but independent experts say a stringent law in this unregulated sector was long overdue.
The Bill has a provision for a jail term up to 10 years and a fine of Rs 10 lakh for violations, such as abandoning the child and opting for commercial surrogacy.
"Foreigners as well as NRIs and PIOs who hold Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) cards have been barred from opting for surrogacy," External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told reporters after the meeting. Only "close relatives" of couples seeking children will be allowed to be surrogate mothers.
A woman who offers her womb for the purpose, will be able to do so only once as per the Bill. The woman wanting a child through the method will be the mother as per the proposed law. There is a provision under the measure for a contract to clear any ambiguity.
Only altruistic surrogacy will be allowed in a regulated form with some condition, the Bill said. A woman seeking a surrogate child should between 23 and 50 years in age and her husband should be between 26 and 55 years. A surrogate child will have equal right as any other biological or adopted child over property, Swaraj said.
Moreover, the surrogate mother, who should be a close relative of the couple, should be married and have borne a healthy child. Swaraj said with India having over 2,000 surrogacy clinics, there was need to regulate the practice and only altruistic surrogacy will be allowed as per the Bill.
The Bill comes in the wake of India emerging as a surrogacy hub for couples and incidents being reported on unethical practices. It also seeks to set up a national surrogacy board at the Central level as well as in states and Union Territories.
The Bill, which will come up for consideration in Parliament during the Winter Session, aims to safeguard the rights of surrogate mothers and make parentage of such children legal.
