Surrogacy Bill to be taken up by Cabinet today

After much dilly-dallying, the draft Surrogacy (Regulation) bill that aims to clip wings of renting-a-womb in India is likely to be taken up by the Cabinet on Wednesday.

Sources in the health ministry said that the draft bill, which has been in works since 2007 (earlier as Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Bill), saw enormous discussions and was finally narrowed down to deal with issues related to “surrogacy,” since surrogacy is more widespread and needs to be regulated.

While the department of health research under the Union health ministry has outlined the broad contours of the bill, there are few areas where a review could be expected. The contentious areas include “confining the substitute arrangement of surrogacy confined to the kith, kin and friends,” keeping gay and singles out of the ambit of the bill among others.

To fine tune the draft bill, recently, a group of ministers (GoM) was set up at the behest of PM Narendra Modi. The GoM decided to bar single and gay couples and keep surrogacy eligible only to those who are “Indian, married and infertile.” Also, to ensure that surrogacy arrangements are done as an “altruistic deed” and not for commercial benefit, the GoM has recommended keeping this substitute arrangement of renting a womb confined to kith, kin and friends. “The GoM was of the opinion to not extend the network of surrogacy beyond blood relations, family, community, country, so as to ban its commercialisation and not let the normal biological function of a woman’s body get into a commercial contract,” sources said. Further, the GoM has also proposed “extra protection” for the surrogate mother through mandatory “insurance cover.”

To safeguard the interests of the surrogate mother, the child and the commissioning parents, the draft spells out the mandatory “health insurance coverage” for the mother throughout the pregnancy and till two months after the delivery.

The draft also invites legal action which includes fine and imprisonment of the prospective parents in case they refuse to accept a baby with health problems or deformity.