EXPERTS REVIEW#3#Surrogacy Special

SURROGACY: A MARKET OF EXPLOITATION

Surrogacy is a method of carrying pregnancy for intended parents.  Intended parents mean those who need a woman to carry their embryo in her womb till the time of delivery. In this process, an embryo created by IVF (in vitro fertilization) is being transferred to the surrogate mother. And in this manner the resulting child is genetically unrelated to the surrogate.

When the surrogate receives money for the surrogacy,  then the arrangement is known as Commercial Surrogacy. Recently, Government of India after going through the pros and cons of this whole process has cleared The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016 that seeks to completely ban commercial surrogacy. And the same will be introduced in next session of Parliament.

The legislation will ensure effective regulation of surrogacy, prohibit commercial surrogacy and allow ethical surrogacy to the needy infertile couples.

The Bill will regulate surrogacy in India by establishing National Surrogacy Board at the central level and State Surrogacy Boards

ALTRUISTIC SURROGACY WILL BE ALLOWED ONLY FOR:

1) Infertile Indian married couples.

And not NRIs or OCI card holders. Single parents, homosexual couples, live-in relationships couples will also not be allowed altruistic surrogacy.

2) The couple must be married for at least five years and will have to produce a medical certificate testifying that either partner is medically unfit to produce children.

3) Commercial surrogacy will be prohibited, including sale and purchase of human embryo and gametes.

RIGHTS OF CHILD:

The child will have all the rights that a biological child has, including right to property.

The bill makes it mandatory:

1) That surrogate mothers to be married.

2) That she is a close relative of couple wanting a child 

3) She must have given birth to a healthy child before becoming a surrogate mother.

4) A woman can only be a surrogate mother once in her life.

Surrogacy clinics must be registered with the government. Provisions regarding imprisonment and imposition of fine have been included for  defaulters.

WHY WAS IT NECESSARY?

In the absence of a statutory mechanism to control commissioning of surrogacy at present, there have been reported incidents concerning unethical practices, exploitation of surrogate mothers, abandonment of children born out of surrogacy and rackets of intermediaries importing human embryos.

There have been past cases where couples took home one child from a twin birth or couples left a disabled baby with the surrogate.

If a medical situation were to arise in which the clinician must act either to save the life of the fetus or the surrogate, he has a strong financial incentive to choose on behalf of the paying client, and thus the fetus. And it represents clear cut exploitation of humanity. 

CRITICISMS:

1) The fear is that this bill will end up creating an underground surrogacy network in India which will end up compromising the rights and health of the surrogate mother even more.

2) This is a situation akin to the organ racket in India where though it is forbidden it still thrives illegally. Women activists wanted rights of the surrogate secured, removal of the middle-man etc. However the Bill in its current form is an extreme one.

3) It takes away the freedom of using her own body in any way she wants. A surrogate gets around $5000 for a pregnancy,  hence we can say that a mean of livelihood has been taken away from poors.

4) By excluding whole sets of people from the ambit of surrogacy, the bill betrays a discriminatory attitude towards them.

5) The present draft would impact medical tourism in the country. The multi-million dollar surrogacy industry will be completely destroyed. Some 2,000 infertile couples hire the wombs of Indian women to carry their embryos through to birth every year, according to the government.

CONCLUSION:

It represents the most heinous form of human labour in front of whole world, in which a woman has to sell her own body in order to survive out of poverty.  It unfurls the curtains from unemployment,  inequality,  illiteracy and brings the real and ugly reality to everyone.  Though the step taken by government should be welcomed but with a suggestion I would like to close my article, that rather than trying to ban a practice, State Institutions must try to fight and resolve the reasons because of what, women have been forced to go through such type of inhumane and painful practices.

ABOUT THE WRITER:

Arun Singh Punia is a alumnus of the University Institute of Legal Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh. He is an amazing poet and have done internship in NHRC and parliamentary internships.He have also been in the National Defence Academy for a year.