If Bollywood actors Aamir Khan or Shah Rukh Khan had attempted to have a baby via surrogacy in 2016, they would have committed a criminal offence! Yes, you read it right.
As per the newly cleared Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016, if you are a married couple with kids, then sadly you'll not be allowed to have another child via surrogacy.
What the bill says...
The much awaited bill was cleared by the cabinet amid mixed reactions from doctors, hopeful parents and even the aam janta. As per the new rules, there are some startling inclusions and stricter norms in the bill.
For parents
- From now on, only childless couples who have been married for at least five years will be allowed an “altruistic surrogacy,” which means they can take help from a close relative to be a surrogate mother
- Foreigners, NRIs and PIOs who hold Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) cards, have also been barred from opting for surrogacy as “divorces are very common in foreign countries"
- Live-in partners, single parents and homosexual couples are also barred from opting for surrogacy now
For surrogates
- The surrogate mother can only be a close relative of the couple and should have borne a child before
- A surrogate mother will only provide her womb for surrogacy once in her lifetime
- She will also not be paid for being a surrogate mother
For clinics
- The almost 2,000-odd surrogacy clinics in the country must be legally registered
- Clinics are free to charge for their services but cannot pay the mother
- They also have to maintain a record of surrogacy for 25 years
For the child born via surrogacy
- The child will have equal rights to that of a biological child
If the parties fail to abide by these new rules, then they can be jailed for 10 years and levied a fine of Rs 10 lakh as punishment.
These new regulations are clearly an endeavor to shut down the 'rent-a-womb' booming business in the country.
In fact, when External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, first spoke to the media about this, she took a dig at Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan's decision to have another child via surrogacy.
She said, “Big celebrities who not only have one but two children, a son and a daughter, even then they went ahead with Surrogacy. Jo cheez zaroorat ke naam pe shuru ki gayi thi woh ab shauk ban gayi hai (What had been started as a need has now become a trend).”
But even so, this new bill screams regression more than anything else, or so think most of the doctors and parents.
Continue reading to see what experts and parents have to say about this new surrogacy bill!
We spoke to a few experts to find out how this new bill will affect couples who were in the waiting for becoming parents via surrogacy.
What doctors say...
Dr Anubha Singh, IVF Specialist from Shantah IVF Centre, New Delhi, said “Surrogacy shouldn’t be treated as illegal or immoral. Remember that when celebrities opt for surrogacy (since they don’t want to harm their bodies or put their career at stake), their ratio is only 1 to 2 percent. But for the rest of the population it is not the case."
She added that she has come across many cases in her career where couples were desperate to have their own biological child but suffered due to serious medical problems like cancer, miscarriages, liver cirrhosis, failed IVF cycles, muscular skeleton discomfort and much more.
"So, these people are in need for surrogacy procedure, and we just cannot rule this out,” she emphatically stated.
Dr. Singh further added, “By saying altruistic surrogacy, even in today’s time relatives are not emotional. So they might sit with you and cry or lessen your burden, they will torture you for being infertile. So, in my opinion a complete ban is incorrect.”
We also spoke to Dr Sonia Malik, director of Southend Fertilty and IVF, Delhi, who also lashed out at this "regressive" bill.
"The surrogacy bill comes as a great disappointment. It not only makes hopeful couples hopeless, but also leaves room for rackets and black market. Surrogacy, unlike other organ donations is a highly sensitive issue implying identity and lineage matters. People do not like to come up in open. In this case the chances of any related person asking or lending support for surrogacy is highly unlikely. The implication is a highly complex situation of desperate hopeless couples and misuse of law for black marketing and surcharging," she said.
Adding that the life of the surrogates would be further jeopardised, Dr Malik said that this will likely happen when they will deliver in shady nursing homes in remote places.
What parents say...
As for parents, most of them felt that some more changes out to be made in this new bill.
We spoke to two parents, one of whom was in fact planning to opt for surrogacy for their second child, and this is what they had to say.
Avika Suneja (name changed), 32, a mother to 5-year-old son along with her husband was visiting surrogacy clinics. She was diagnosed with chocolate cyst last year, and its removal also led to the removal of her womb.
"I was hoping to become a mother again, but asking for help from another relative is both emotionally complicated and morally wrong. I am disheartened by this move and I hope that they still work on going back to the old norms. Because as far as I know this bill is a leaf out of the regressive UK-based surrogacy bill," she said.
We spoke to another parent; the Delhi-based Rewati Nair, a senior media professional and mum to 8-year-old daughter.
She said, "I find the some of the contents of the bill terribly regressive. Apart from many other things, I find the exclusion of single parents, divorcees, homosexuals etc like a hard slap on their faces in the name of protecting women exploitation."
Even though most doctors, experts and even parents feel that this bill is regressive, it remains to be seen how it will affect families and childless couples in the future. For now, this is what the government is offering and it doesn't seem like there is much of a choice for hopeful parents.
Read: Aamir Khan is happy with the decision to have Azad via surrogacy
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