India recognises surrogacy and wanted the German government to issue permanent passports to Leonard and Nicolas, born to an Indian surrogate mother in Gujarat.
There’s hope at last for the German couple who are desperately seeking visas for their surrogate twins. Germany has said it might consider giving the visas.
India recognises surrogacy and wanted the German government to issue permanent passports to Leonard and Nicolas, born to an Indian surrogate mother in Gujarat.
Now, German ambassador Thomas Mataussek has told a TV channel that his country would consider giving the children visas if the Indian government approaches it. “If the Indian government approaches us, we will certainly take note of it. We will not reject it outright,” the German envoy told the TV channel.
He said this in response to a query whether Germany will reconsider giving visas to the twins if the Indian government gave them a one-time passport. “We have to be very careful. We don’t want to set a precedent,” he said. “We don’t want to encourage people to go down this path. This is not the way to put children into the world.”
The German embassy had so far refused the visas since the country does not recognise surrogacy as a means of parenthood. On Monday, the Supreme Court (justices GS Singhvi and Asok Kumar Ganguly) gave the Indian government a fortnight to solve the matter through diplomatic channels.
The Centre doesn’t want to give the twins Indian passports because this would mean granting them citizenship. Balaz had told the court that “he was ready to deposit a reasonable sum equivalent to the fare of three persons before any court in India to secure the travel of the children, if required”. Solicitor-general Gopal Subramanium termed the undertaking “fair” but sought more time to secure citizenship for the twins.
“Germany declined to grant citizenship on the ground that Mr Balaz cannot be recognised as the father of the kids,” the couple’s lawyer Dhawal Dave said.
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