The Rs25,000-crore surrogate parenthood tourism industry in India could be in for a shake-up if the government accepts the law commission’s latest recommendation.
The Rs25,000-crore surrogate parenthood tourism industry in India could be in for a shake-up if the government accepts the law commission’s latest recommendation to give legal sanction to surrogacy and prohibit its commercial use by making it mandatory for one of the parents desirous of having a child through the method to be a donor.
“Non-intervention of law in this knotty issue will not be proper at a time when the law is to act as an ardent defender of human liberty and an instrument of positive entitlement,” chairperson AR Lakshmanan, a retired Supreme Court judge, said.
The panel emphasised the need for a legislation to deal with the matter.
A legislation dealing with surrogacy would help reduce the chances of child abuse in cases of adoption, the commission said, asserting, “If the reproductive right gets constitutional protection, surrogacy, which allows an infertile couple to exercise that right, also gets the same protection.”
The commission is not for a ban on surrogacy since it is a boon for childless couples. “Prohibition on vague moral grounds without a proper assessment of social ends and purposes which surrogacy can serve would be irrational,” it said.
The commission recommended comprehensive provisions dealing with pre- and post-surrogacy periods and also rights and protection to surrogate mothers and children, as well as intending parents.
“It seems wombs in India are on rent which translates into babies for foreigners and dollars for Indian surrogate mothers,” the report said.
Panjab University vice-chancellor RC Sobti, a student of biotechnology, said a changing society and stress levels were leading to a high incidence of impotence, thereby increasing the demand for surrogate mothers. “Around 10% of couples face this problem,” he said.
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