A child’s play no more

With the Centre planning to make surrogacy laws stringent, we glean insights from experts

When two-week-old baby Manji Yamada stirred the surrogacy debate in India in 2008, little did the child know that its consequences would lead to a new surrogacy bill being introduced only eight years later. Manji was born after eggs from an Indian donor were fertilised using the sperm of a man from Japan, and implanted in the womb of a surrogate Indian mother. She was left without a national identity after the commissioning parents in Japan divorced during the pregnancy, and the mother refused to accept the baby. In her case however, the court granted custody to the baby’s grandmother, albeit after a long legal battle.

The Union Cabinet in Wednesday approved a new surrogacy bill that bars married couples with kids, NRIs, foreigners and homosexuals from opting for surrogacy. The bill also states that childless or unmarried women are not allowed to be surrogate mothers, and a close relative — married with at least one child of her own — would be allowed to be a surrogate. While regulations and amendments in the industry are important, a complete blanket ban would lead to exploitation, feels Dr Narendra Malhotra, the Delhi-based president of the ISAR (Indian Society for Assisted Reproduction), “The bill hasn’t been passed yet and will take at least a year to become a law. Having said that, out of 100 IVF procedures that take place in India each year, only two require surrogacy. So the commercial aspect that is being hyped isn’t the truth at all. The government has issued a blanket ban, and this will lead to exploitation at a different level. With the close relative rule, inheritance and parental issues will definitely crop up. They are trying to open a Pandora’s box, and this is a regressive step. Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Bill has been a point of discussion within the medical circles, but the government did not consult us before taking this step,” he says.

Minister for External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj has alleged that what started as a convenience has now become a luxury. Lashing out at celebrities for choosing surrogacy and making it ‘fashionable,’ she said, “Even big celebrities who have not one but two children – a son and a daughter – went ahead with surrogacy.” However, PSN Prasad, chairman of Dr Rama’s Institute for Fertility, Hyderabad says, “The Khans or other celebrities don’t constitute even one percent (who seek surrogacy). 99.99 per cent of couples who seek surrogacy are those who can’t have their own genetic baby by any other means.” Sushma has also said that India has emerged as a surrogacy hub for couples and for unethical practices. But Prasad claims otherwise. “Not even 500 surrogacy babies are born to foreigners every year in India; we hardly have two births per month. Surrogacy has simply attracted too much attention due to its sensational nature. Too many difficulties of logistics are involved for the intending parents, surrogates and hospitals. It is practised only as a last hope and resort. And there are no reported cases of exploitation of any kind with the government,” he reasons.

Reiterating Prasad’s views, Dr. Narendra elaborates, “There is no way one can term the whole procedure to be fashionable — it is a need. There is no law, which says that in India we cannot have more than two children. By doing so the government is trying to infringe on a woman’s right. There are about 1,000 surrogacy cases in India — peanuts compared to the size of our population, and people do it because they have serious issues. Shah Rukh Khan’s wife was well over 40, which is why they opted for surrogacy. With Aamir Khan, Kiran Rao had medical problems and wasn’t able to carry a child and decided to opt for surrogacy. Tusshar (Kapoor) did not want to get married but wanted to be a father; that was his reason. For them it was not fashionable it was a need. To regulate the industry is one thing and issuing a blanket ban altogether is different,” he adds.

Joy of (single) parenting Surrogacy is known to bring a life, smiles and joy in lives of childless couples. Tusshar became a father to a baby boy in June this year and as an unmarried man, turned to the aid of surrogacy to enjoy the joys of parenthood. His paternal instinct grew strong due to the influence of director Prakash Jha. He says, “Last year, I went to Tirupati Temple and happened to meet Jha in the flight. He told me about the IVF procedure and how one could be a single parent using it. He also introduced me to a family who had a baby through surrogacy. I felt inspired and decided to go for the same.”

Surrogacy made a gay family complete A male citizen of the European Union on condition of anonymity says he considers himself lucky to have conducted the procedure before the new law was passed. “I came to India eight years ago after my gay partner of five years and I decided to have a baby,” he says. My country did not and still does not permit surrogacy, and I found a surrogate in India who conceived using my sperm and a donor egg from an anonymous Indian donor. I engaged lawyers in my country to have my child recognised through our courts, and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). I obtained permission from the court to take my child on a travel document issued by my embassy. After a few years of legal proceedings, my child has been recognised as my child.”