Surrogate birth
Surrogate
birth
Surrogate birth means hiring of another woman who is artificially
inseminated with the barren woman’s husband’s sperms and is called the
surrogate. When the child is born, he is handed over to the biological father
and his wife. Usually, it is the surrogate who is biological as well as
gestational mother of the child but when the wife’s ovum is fertilized with the
husband’s semen in the laboratory and then implanted in the surrogate, she
remains only the gestational mother.
A surrogate is a woman
who conceives, carries, and gives birth to a child for another person or couple
(intended parent/s).
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It involves no
monetary compensation to the surrogate mother other than the medical expenses
and insurance coverage during the pregnancy.
Commercial surrogacy:
It includes surrogacy
or its related procedures undertaken for a monetary benefit or reward (in cash
or kind) exceeding the basic medical expenses and insurance coverage.
Indications:
(i) Inability of the
couple to produce the child as the wife is unable to conceive or carry the
child to term (ii) There are some eugenic reasons, genetic defects, or
inherited diseases.
(iii) Wife does not
wish to take time to carry the foetus through.
(iv) Wife may suffer
from anxiety or labour phobia.
(v) Couple wishes to
adopt the child but since the facilities are scarce and it takes long for
adoption.
(vi)Sometimes the
adopted child is in emotional conflict when he discovers that they are not his
biological parents.
The
surrogacy (regulation) act, 2021 and The Assisted reproductive technology
(regulation) act, 2021
The
surrogacy (regulation) act, 2021
Regulation
of surrogacy clinics:
(i)
No surrogacy clinic, unless registered under this Act, shall conduct, or
associate with, or help in any manner, in conducting activities relating to
surrogacy and surrogacy procedures.
(ii)
No surrogacy clinic, paediatrician, gynaecologist, embryologist, registered
medical practitioner or any person shall conduct, offer, undertake, promote, or
associate with or avail of commercial surrogacy in any form.
(iii)
No surrogacy clinic shall employ or cause to be employed or take services of
any person, whether on honorary basis or on payment, who does not possess such
qualifications as may be prescribed.
(iv)
No registered medical practitioner, gynaecologist, paediatrician, embryologist,
or any other person shall conduct or cause to be conducted or aid in conducting
by himself or through any other person surrogacy or surrogacy procedures at a
place other than a place registered under this Act.
(v)
No surrogacy clinic registered medical practitioner, gynaecologist,
paediatrician, embryologist, or any other person shall promote, publish,
canvass, propagate or advertise or cause to be promoted.
(vi)
No surrogacy clinic registered medical practitioner, gynaecologist,
paediatrician, embryologist, intending couple or any other person shall conduct
or cause abortion during the period of surrogacy without the written consent of
the surrogate mother and on authorization of the same by the appropriate
authority concerned.
(vii) No surrogacy clinic registered medical
practitioner, gynaecologist, paediatrician, embryologist, intending couple or
any other person shall store a human embryo or gamete for the purpose of
surrogacy.
(viii)
No surrogacy clinic registered medical practitioner, gynaecologist,
paediatrician, embryologist, intending couple or any other person shall in any
form conduct or cause to be conducted sex selection for surrogacy.
Regulation of
surrogacy and surrogacy procedures
(i)
No place shall be used or cause to be used by any person for conducting
surrogacy or surrogacy procedures, except for the purposes specified.
(ii)
No procedures shall be conducted, undertaken, performed, or initiated, unless
the Director or in-charge of the surrogacy clinic and the person qualified to
do so are satisfied.
(iii)
The intending couple is in possession of a certificate of essentiality issued
by the appropriate authority, after satisfying itself, for the reasons to be
recorded in writing, about the fulfillment of the following conditions, namely:
(a) A certificate of a medical
indication in favour of the intending couple or intending woman necessitating
gestational surrogacy from a District Medical Board.
(b) An order concerning the parentage
and custody of the child to be born through surrogacy has been passed by a
court of the Magistrate Regulation of surrogacy and surrogacy procedures.
(iv)
An insurance coverage of such amount and in such manner as may be prescribed in
favour of the surrogate mother for a period of thirty-six months covering
postpartum delivery complications.
(v)
The surrogate mother is in possession of an eligibility certificate issued by
the appropriate authority on fulfillment of the following conditions, namely:
(a) No woman, other than an ever-married
woman having a child of her own and between the age of 25 to 35 years on the
day of implantation, shall be a surrogate mother or help in surrogacy by
donating her egg or oocyte or otherwise.
(b)
A willing woman shall act as a surrogate mother and be permitted to undergo
surrogacy procedures. The intending couple or the intending woman shall
approach the appropriate authority with a willing woman who agrees to act as a
surrogate mother.
(c)
No woman shall act as a surrogate mother by providing her own gametes.
(d) No woman shall act as a surrogate
mother more than once in her lifetime: Provided that the number of attempts for
surrogacy procedures on the surrogate mother shall be such as may be
prescribed; and
(e) A certificate of medical and
psychological fitness from a registered medical practitioner.
(vi)
An eligibility certificate for intending couple is issued separately by the
appropriate authority on fulfillment of the following conditions, namely:
(i) The intending couple are married and
between the age of 23 to 50 years in case of female and between 26 to 55 years
in case of male on the day of certification.
(ii) The intending couple has not had any
surviving child.
Prohibition of
conducting surrogacy:
(1)
No person shall seek or conduct surrogacy procedures unless he has
(a) Explained all known side effects
and aftereffects of such procedures to the surrogate mother concerned; and
(b) Obtained in the prescribed form,
the written informed consent of the surrogate mother to undergo such procedures
in the language she understands.
(2)
The surrogate mother shall have an option to withdraw her consent for surrogacy
before the implantation of human embryo in her womb.
(3)
The intending couple or intending woman shall not abandon the child, born out
of a surrogacy procedure, whether within India or outside, for any reason
whatsoever, including but not restricted to, any genetic defect, birth defect,
any other medical condition, the defects developing subsequently, sex of the
child or conception of more than one baby and the like.
(4)
A child born out of surrogacy procedure shall be deemed to be a biological
child of the intending couple or intending woman and the said child shall be
entitled to all the rights and privileges available to a natural child under
any law for time being in force.
(5)
The number of oocytes or human embryos to be implanted in the uterus of the
surrogate mother for the purpose of surrogacy, shall be such as may be
prescribed.
(6)
No person, organisation, surrogacy clinic, laboratory or clinical establishment
of any kind shall force the surrogate mother to abort at any stage of surrogacy
except in such conditions as may be prescribed.
Certificate of
registration:
(1) Where,
after the inquiry and after giving an opportunity of being heard to the
applicant, the appropriate authority is satisfied that the applicant has not
complied with the requirements of this Act or the rules or regulations made
thereunder, it shall, for reasons to be recorded in writing, reject the
application for registration.
(2)
Every certificate of registration shall be valid for a period of three years
and shall be renewed in such manner and on payment of such fees as may be
prescribed.
(3)
The certificate of registration shall be displayed by the surrogacy clinic at a
conspicuous place.
(4)
The appropriate authority may, sue motu or on receipt of a complaint, issues a
notice to the surrogacy clinic to show cause as to why its registration should
not be suspended or cancelled for the reasons mentioned in the notice.
#surrogacy #surrogacy act
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