Surrogacy: Policy & Legal Framework in India

Abstract

The surrogacy is being used as an alternative medium for fulfilling the desire of parenthood by infertile couples, couples having some physiological disabilities for reproduction, gay couples and single persons. There are instances of surrogacy in bible that explicitly endorses the prevalence of surrogacy during those days. Babylonian Law and custom allowed the practice of surrogacy. The practice of surrogacy is prevalent since ancient times that bear testimony to the fact that the desire of parentage has paved way for surrogacy through customary practices for infertile couples who wanted to have a child having their own genetic linkage. According to a survey conducted by International Institute for Population Science (IIPS), out of 250 million individuals estimated to attempting parenthood at any given time, 13 to 19 millions couples are likely to be infertile. Nearly 30 million couples in the country are suffering from infertility. Nearly one in every five male suffers from abnormal sperm count.

From the instance of first baby born (second in the world to be born by ART) named Durga, on 3rd October 1978 to present day born in Kolkata through in vitro fertilization; surrogacy market has grown multifold in India. Though there are various players in the market, Anand has been spearheading in making the surrogacy business, a reality in India which has further led to the concept of medical tourism.. On an average, the average expenditure per surrogacy is roughly $25000-30000 in India which is much cheaper than the cost incurred in the developed countries. Thus, the growing market and extensive commercialization of surrogacy has brought fore various moral, ethical and legal issues. The study purports to highlight the antagonisms, raise the concerns and the moral dilemmas in the backdrop of constitutional mandates that affirms the safeguards of deprived and underprivileged. The nature of the study is exploratory based on the secondary data resources.