Surrogacy act gives birth to a debate

Mumbai (DNA/Santosh Andhale) : While a top Bollywood actor rumoured to be having his third child through a surrogate has neither confirmed nor denied the reports, senior doctors and in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) specialists are once again hotly debating whether surrogacy should be available only to those couples who cannot bear a child in any other way or to anybody who can afford it.

In the absence of clear regulation, they all agree, surrogacy is a currently unchecked and unsupervised industry with no law to fall back on if anything goes wrong during the treatment. Whether couples already blessed with kids should opt for a surrogate is also being debated. “Surrogacy is an option for those couples where pregnancy could be dangerous for the woman or if she has a medical problem such as multiple miscarriages,” said Dr Ameet Patki, a senior IVF expert based in Khar. That’s the only condition on which he recommends surrogacy, he added,” Dr Patki added.