India To Regulate “Rent-A-Womb” Industry: Report
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The Indian government is drafting a new law that would make it tougher for foreigners to hire surrogate mothers in the country, according to a Reuters report on Monday, as concerns grow over whether the unregulated industry was exploiting women in poverty.
The Indian government is drafting a new law that would make it tougher for foreigners to hire surrogate mothers in the country, according to a Reuters report on Monday, as concerns grow over whether the unregulated industry was exploiting women in poverty.
In May last year, surrogate mother Premila Vaghela, 30, died days after delivering a child for an American couple at a clinic in Gujarat. Though incident was recorded as an “accidental death” by police, Ranjana Kumari, director of the Centre for Social Research said that the case highlighted how the surrogate industry had “no fixed rule” related to compensation and no insurance for post-delivery healthcare.
“In most of these cases, the surrogate mothers are being exploited,” Kumari said, adding that in many cases surrogates were implanted with embryos multiple times to raise the chances of success.
India opened up to commercial surrogacy in 2002. While there are no official figures on how large the industry is in India, a U.N.-backed study in July 2012 estimated the business earned more than $400 million a year, with over 3,000 fertility clinics across India. Meanwhile, the BBC reported that commercial surrogacy in India could be worth more than $1 billion a year.
Women who choose to be surrogates can earn between $6,500-$8,000 for ‘renting’ their womb. But while the amount is generally enough for Indian women in poverty to build a new house and send their own children to school, many poor and uneducated women can often lured by agents into signing contracts they do not fully understand.
Mindful of the potential size of the business, while looking into taking care of the surrogates’ rights, the government is thus proposing a new law – the Assisted Reproductive Technologies Bill (ART) – that could come before parliament next year.
Under the current draft, all fertility clinics must be registered and monitored by a regulatory authority. Surrogates must also only be between the ages of 21 and 35; and be provided with insurance and notarized contracts to be signed between the women and the commissioning parents.
In July this year, the Indian government also revised its visa requirements so that same-sex couples and single people cannot enter the country for the sole purpose of using a woman to carry their child.
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IVF specialist Dr Nayana Patel, who have produced more than 500 surrogate babies, two-thirds of them for foreigners, agreed that there was a need to regulate the sector, but warned against over-complicating the rules, for both child-seekers and potential surrogates.
“Legislation should be there so that this wonderful procedure can be supervised and it is being done by the right people for the right people,” said Patel.
[quote]”But more bureaucracy will make it difficult for everyone. It will not only mean less commissioning parents from overseas but it will also impact surrogates, who will lose out on the only chance they have to change their lives for the better.”[/quote]
