Surrogacy stakeholders draw up guidelines

AHMEDABAD (Radha Sharma/Times of India) : Most of the women driving multimillion-dollar surrogacy industry in India by renting out their wombs to childless couples do so to beat poverty. Often, they are exploited by agents and even risk their lives.

While there is no legal framework enacted - the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill, years after it was drafted, is yet to be passed - a handful of stakeholders have formed a society to assure surrogates get basic remuneration, compensation in medical crises and, most importantly, respect for carrying somebody's child for nine months and delivering happinessThe first-ever Indian Society for Third-Party Assisted Reproduction (INSTAR) has now been formed. Infertility experts, lawyers, embryologists and social workers from 15 states including Gujarat have joined hands to enforce self-imposed moral and ethical guidelines for the welfare of surrogates in India.

"Disturbing reports have been emerging from parts of India about exploitation of surrogates, cheating by agents, poor compensation and no safeguards in cases of death or medical crises. This reflects negatively, not only on the profession, but also on the country as nearly 50% of couples opting for surrogacy in India are based abroad," says INSTAR president Dr Himanshu Bavishi. 
 

Dr Bavishi said that the first scientific meeting of INSTAR was recently held in Assam, where it was decided that each surrogate will be paid a minimum of Rs 2.25 lakh. In the rare case of the death of a surrogate while carrying a commissioning couple's child, her family will be paid Rs 5 lakh at least.

A surrogates also risks medical conditions where fallopian tubes or the uterus may need to be removed. In such cases, they will be paid Rs 25,000 for the removal of tubes and Rs 1 lakh for a hysterectomy.

"It has also been decided that all INSTAR members will follow a system which ensures that documents related to the surrogate are made available in her mother-tongue or a language she can read and comprehend," says Dr Bavishi.