Towards a humane approach to surrogacy

Abstract

The proposed ban on commercial surrogacy may lead to a black market. If the state laid down guidelines governing fair fees for surrogates instead, it would ensure better protection for them. The approval of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016 by the Union Cabinet on August 24 has raised a hue and cry in the billion-dollar surrogacy industry in India. A comprehensive law to regulate the surrogacy market and protect the interests of surrogates was long overdue and the government, through this Bill, hopes to address this.

According to the Law Commission of India (2009), there are two types of surrogacy — “traditional” and “gestational”. The former is a “pregnancy in which a woman provides her own egg, which is fertilised by artificial insemination, and carries the foetus and gives birth to a child for another person”. The latter is a “pregnancy in which one woman (the genetic mother) provides the egg, which is fertilised, and another woman (the surrogate mother) carries the foetus and gives birth to the child”. Read more at: https://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/towards-a-humane-approach-to-surrogacy-116110500994_1.html