Govt proposes to bring Bill to regulate surrogacy: Azad

New Delhi (Economic Times) : The government today said it proposes to bring a Bill to monitor the services of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) clinics and banks to regulate surrogacy in the country.

"A draft Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill has been formulated and sent to Ministry of Law and Justice for concurrence," Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.

He said in order to monitor the services of ART clinics and banks to help regulate surrogacy, the Indian Council of Medical Research ( ICMR) has already framed guidelines for accreditation, supervision and regulation of ART clinics and banks.

The Minister said the proposed law will help in effective implementation of the guidelines.

"The Bill describes the procedure for accreditation and supervision of Assisted Reproductive Technology Clinics and Banks," Azad said, adding that such services needed to be ethical.

No surrogacy visa for gay foreigners

Mumbai ( Madhavi Rajadhyaksha/ TNN) : In a first-of-its-kind step towards regulating the practice of surrogacy in India, the Union home ministry has issued stringent guidelines for visas being issued to foreigners seeking to rent a womb in India. The diktat indicates that gay couples and single foreigners will no longer be eligible to have an Indian surrogate bear their child as only a foreign "man and woman" who have been married for a period of two years will be granted visas. 

Stating that the Union ministry of home affairs had noticed that some foreign nationals visited India for surrogacy on tourist visas, which wasn't appropriate, the ministry decided in a little-known circular sent out to foreign embassies in July 2012 that such foreigners would be eligible to enter India only on "medical" visas, and only if they fulfilled certain criteria. The circular was notified by the Foreign Regional Registration Office in Mumbai on December 17, 2012 and was subsequently sent out to fertility clinics.

It comes even as a legislation to regulate fertility clinics, the Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Regulation Bill 2010, awaits tabling in Parliament.

Surrogacy cases on the rise in India

Mumbai (India.com) : A new report suggests that cases of surrogacy or ‘wombs for hire’ have increased in the past five years.  The research, published in The Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, reveals there is an increasing demand in the number of couples registering children to foreign surrogates.
 ‘Parental orders’ were granted following surrogacy to transfer the child from the surrogate mother to the commissioning parents, The Independent reported. This process, driven particularly by Indian agencies, has risen from 47 times in 2007 and 133 in 2011, the study said. But the real figures are believed to be much higher, and experts have warned of the increasing exploitation of women living in poverty who undergo the pregnancies to raise money.
 According to the study, women rent their wombs for about USD 16,000 to USD 32,000. Commercial surrogacy is permitted in the US and in many other countries including India, where it was legalised in 2002. But it is banned in Britain and only expenses may be paid making it difficult for UK couples where neither partner is able to bear children to find women prepared to volunteer for the role.
‘We have clinicians in this country who have links with overseas clinics. That was stopped with international adoption years ago. I don`t think the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has been strong enough on this,’ Marilyn Crawshaw, author of the research and senior lecturer at the University of York, said.
‘There is concern about child trafficking. The World Health Organisation held a meeting on this. Parents desperate to have children will pay thousands of pounds to foreign agencies to arrange the birth of their child. Natalie Gamble, a lawyer specialising in surrogacy cases, said important regulations were in place to protect children at risk from international trafficking, but there were no safeguards in place for overseas surrogacy.
The practise follows a decline in international adoptions, which has plummeted to its lowest point in 15 years.