Introduction :
Surrogacy in commercial form is legal in India with the landmark Supreme Court judgment and later, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Guidelines 2005 which prescribed conduct and use of ART procedures or treatment by fertility clinics. Subsequent to this the ART (Regulation) Bill 2010 was formulated by the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, which is still awaiting enforcement. The ART Bill legalised commercial surrogacy by providing for payment as “monetary compensation” to the surrogate mother by theintending couple.
Critics :
- There is no maximum age limit prescribed under the Bill for the couples or individual in order to be eligible to make use of ART though the minimum age limit is prescribed as 21 years.
- There is no screening of the socio-economic/family background of the couples. Neither are there any eligibility criteria for an individual to be a fit parent to have child via surrogacy. There is no appointed government body to monitor the issue.
- The ART Bill prohibits sex-selective surrogacy in consonance with the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act
