Ahmedabad surrogate mothers to get life insurance for their rented wombs

Ranju, a housewife felt helpless when her husband, the family's sole breadwinner, had to stop working due to a burn injury. This was when she thought of becoming a surrogate mother. But several apprehensions led her to rethink her decision. However, the introduction of life insurance for surrogate mothers dispelled all her fears.

Ranju visited Akanksha Infertility Clinic in Anand, believed to be the surrogacy capital of the world. The clinic has started offering life insurance to surrogate mothers like her after the government of India guideline mentioned it.

This means in case of her death due to any medical complication during her pregnancy, her family would get a substantial amount as insurance money besides the normal reimbursement that it receives from the childless couple for using her services.

Dr Nayna Patel who runs the clinic says they have started providing life insurance for surrogate mothers since last eight to 10 months. So far, around 20 surrogate mothers are covered under life insurance, she said. However, most insurance companies including government ones refused to provide insurance cover. Finally, one private insurance company agreed to cover surrogate mothers for around Rs2 lakh.

"The childless couple pays around Rs3 lakh to the surrogate mothers. They also pay an insurance premium of Rs2,000 for 11 months for the surrogate mother. In case something goes wrong, the surrogate mother's family would get Rs2 lakh from insurance company and Rs1 lakh from the surrogate trust, apart from reimbursement from the childless couple," said Dr Patel.

However, the insurance amount will be given only if the premium is paid for the five-year term, of which the surrogate mother and family would have to pay for four years. But even if the surrogate mother is unable to pay that amount, she would receive around Rs20,000 at the end of five years.

However, she said that since surrogate mothers are from rural areas, it becomes difficult for them to be covered by insurance companies. "They do not have identity cards, birth certificates or basic documents. So, it is difficult to cover every surrogate mother. Also, initially many childless couples did not agree. But over time many have agreed," she says.

Other IVF surrogacy experts, however, feel that it is not easy to get rented pregnancies of surrogate mothers insured. "There is a guideline but surrogate mothers are not earning women and so it would be difficult to convince any insurance company to give them life insurance. And pregnancies are not considered under mediclaims," argues Dr Manish Banker of Ahmedabad.