Why can't surrogate mothers bond with child, asks plan panel

Planning Commission questions clause of draft ART Bill against breastfeeding

New Delhi (DNA/ Priyanka Sahay) : At which point does a surrogate mother relinquish her right over her baby? Expressing its annoyance with the health ministry’s recently proposed draft of the Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) Bill, the Planning Commission has taken up with it the question of whether a surrogate mother does not have the right to breastfeed a baby after she delivers her.
The long-awaited draft ART (Regulation) Bill and Rules 2010 says a surrogate mother will have to relinquish all parental rights over the child. “In surrogacy, there is no breastfeeding as the couples usually do not want the child to bond with the surrogate mother after the delivery. But what happens to the rights of the mother thereafter? How are we going to reconcile with such questions?” asked commission member Sayeda Hameed. “What happens to the Janini Suraksha Yojna (JSY)? What about the Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana (IGMSY)?”

Surrogacy 'leading to exploitation' of poor Indian women: Report

Washington (ANI) : Foreign couples hiring Indian surrogates is an unregulated industry that is completely dependent on vulnerable women, a report has said.

For many couples, the only hope to create a child of their own is to fertilize an egg in a test-tube and implant it in a surrogate.Indian clinics do that for a fraction of the usual cost.
The procedure in which doctors implant an embryo into the womb of a surrogate mother is a delicate operation. If all goes well, in nine months time, the surrogate will deliver a baby for a childless couple.

But the country's baby business has critics, like Dr. Ranjana Kumari.According to CBS News, Dr. Kumari argues that there so many Indian women who want to do this because the country has so many poor women. There are so many women who don't want to see their own child dying out of bad health, or not getting educated, not getting two meals a day. So that's why so many women are available, she added.Dr. Ranjana Kumari pointed out that the industry needs to be regulated.

According to the report, the stressed that the vulnerability of poverty is being exploited in this whole system, and it should be banned. The report pointed out that there are some clinics in India that give the surrogate mothers life insurance and medical care, even after the baby is born.But other clinics don't provide this care. Their primary concern is the baby because that's where they make their money.

‘Beautiful and fair’ preferred among surrogate mothers too

Caste and religion are also key factors while renting wombs: study

The Hindu (Aarti Dhar) : Beautiful and fair — words traditionally synonymous with brides — are being used for renting a womb. For, not only are “healthy, beautiful, fair and higher caste or Brahmin’’ surrogates in great demand, they also receive good payment in cash and kind from the commissioning parents after delivery.

Doctors and agents have confirmed — in a study by Sama, a Delhi-based resource group working on women’s and health issues — that there were preferred criteria set by the commissioning parents, such as ‘higher caste,’ Brahmins and a particular religion, often directed by their own identity. Commissioning parents shower gifts on surrogate mothers for producing healthy and good-looking babies.

Surrogate mother dies of complications

AHMEDABAD (TOI) : Premila Vaghela, 30, had opted to become a surrogate mother and deliver child of a US-based couple to supplement her family income and brighten the future of her own two kids.
On Wednesday, Premila, who was eight months pregnant, died due to unexplained complications. But she completed her job - the child was delivered and is in the NICU recuperating from early birth.

Surrogacy has picked up majorly all over Gujarat where Anand is considered the global surrogacy capital. Ahmedabad too caters to a big number of couples who medically need a womb to carry their child. Couples are known to pay anywhere between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 4 lakh to women who offer their wombs on rent to conceive and deliver the child. The decent money offered by couples, majority of who are NRGs and foreigners, attracts many women from poor socio-economic backgrounds to offer themselves as surrogates.
Premila paid the price of offering herself as surrogate with her life. Dr Manish Banker of Pulse Hospital, where Premila was a surrogate, said that they are clueless as to why Premila developed a fatal health incident. Dr Banker specializes in offering In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) services.

"Premila had come for routine check-up and was sitting in the hospital. While she was chatting with her husband Karsan, she suddenly had a convulsion and fell on the floor. We immediately took her for treatment. Since she was showing signs of distress, we conducted an emergency caesarean section delivery," said Dr Banker. The child, who was born a month premature, was admitted in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Dr Banker said that the child should be stable soon.

Meanwhile, Premila developed severe complications and she was shifted to Sterling Hospital for better intensive care. "We shifted her to Sterling Hospital for intensive care but she failed to respond and died," said Dr Banker.

Sterling Hospital officials said that Premila was brought to the hospital in an extremely critical condition. "She was suffering a major cardiac arrest. We tried to resuscitate her but she succumbed," said a senior official.
Dr Banker said that they had notified the death to the police and details of post-mortem report were awaited to know the exact cause of death. Vastrapur police said a case of accidental death had been filed. and further inquiry would be conducted on basis of the post-mortem report.