Surrogacy bill may not benefit gays

Students of ILS Law College point out loopholes in the Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill, which is silent on the subject of homosexual couples; will discuss the Bill with one of its creators

Surrogacy bill may not benefit gays

Students of ILS Law College point out loopholes in the Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill, which is silent on the subject of homosexual couples; will discuss the Bill with one of its creators

While the proposed Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) (regulation) Bill 2008 is expected to legalise and regulate surrogate motherhood, gay, lesbian and live-in couples are unlikely to be allowed to become parents through the route.

Satya Narayan, joint director of advanced legal studies at the ILSLC, is also expected to join in the discussions. "The bill has been drafted by doctors and medico-legal experts, and our students have made some
recommendations that will have far reaching implications," she said.

Many issues

The draft bill created by ICMR according to Narayan was silent over issues like same-sex parenthood through the surrogate mother route, foreign nationals having children from foreign surrogate mothers in India. "Even the issue of who is authorised to terminate a foetus has not been touched upon," she said.

Fourth year student Nidhi Mohan Parashar said gays, lesbians, live-in couples should be prohibited from using surrogacy to become parents. "Gay marriage is not legal in the country. Children coming out of the relationship cannot be legal," Parashar argued.

"We have recommended that the decision of termination of foetus should be given to the surrogate mother only if she has medical complications, and in accordance with Medical Termination of Pregnancy Regulation Act," saidu00a0 Vaibhav Modi, a fourth-year student.

The bill is yet to be placed before Parliament.

Made-in-Mumbai baby for Israeli gay couple

In November last year, Israeli gay couple Yonatan and Omer Gher were blessed with their first-born, Evyatar.
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The baby was conceived with a Mumbai-based surrogate mother in Rotunda, a fertility clinic, proving that India is a preferred destination for infertile couples as well as gay couples seeking surrogacy.

India, with its easy availability of surrogate mothers, easy paperwork and cheap costs have earned a reputation for its surrogacy programme, with Anand in Gujarat often being referred to as the 'surrogacy capital of the world'.

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