“By the time a law is formulated in our country, several would have already taken undue advantage of its absence. Surrogacy is one such classic example,” opines K. Ravinder Reddi, a practicing advocate.
In an eco-system where commercial surrogates are most vulnerable to exploitation in ways subtle and obvious by agents, fertility clinics and childless couples, there is absolutely no law to their rescue. For the surrogate mother willing to rent her womb for monetary support, the scenario is one rid with risks at every step of the ten-month-long process.
“Due to absence of any law, commercial surrogates who are almost always poor and uneducated are today exploited rather easily,” says Dr. K. Anuradha of the Anu Test Tube Baby Centre. “From the risks of pregnancy that might affect her own health, to those involved in miscarriage, deformity or any such eventuality of the infant, there is nothing in the law to protect her, or at least to ensure that the commercial surrogate receives the promised amount at the end of pregnancy,” she added.
While draft Bills on the issue have been revised and re-revised year after year, all serious attempts at successfully passing the bill to make it law have been evaded by law-makers. The 10th draft bill, last amended in 2008, has simply been shelved again.
“Today the process of surrogacy is only governed by a private contract between the two involved parties. The law is silent on all issues concerned with protecting the rights of a willing surrogate,” rued Mr. Reddi. No more than a few guidelines issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research stipulate the appropriate methods of carrying out surrogacy. Even these guidelines, lawyers say, are not binding on any of the stakeholders. Another serious issue that is unaddressed is the influx of foreign couples, seeking cheap commercial surrogate, into the city.
