(Published in Orissa Post Editorial page on March 23rd)
According to a UN-backed study in 2012, surrogacy itself accounts for $400million business in India, while civil society members claim to be more than double the estimated amount. This sector largely gets blurred as this business is legal in India yet highly unregulated, unaccredited and unsupervised. In 2008, the Gujarat high court, while hearing a case on surrogacy, had said that there is “extreme urgency to push through legislation” which addresses issues that arise out of surrogacy.
Lawmakers in the country however are pondering over a bill which can largely affect the ART clinics across the country and can potentially help in regulating, monitoring and supervising them. The bill christened as Assisted Reproductive Bill 2010 is yet to be cleared from Parliament and is now undergoing wider consultations among stakeholders. The draft bill discusses in detail the problems with the sector and also offers some solutions to this menace.
In order to regulate ART clinics, the draft bill talks about the establishment of a national advisory body, a state advisory body and a registration authority subordinate to the two bodies which can help in regulating, monitoring and supervising the industry. The bill empowers the national and state bodies to frame regulations to decide on the minimum staff at these ART clinics, permissible procedure, training, infrastructure, offences on cases of violation among others.
The most unique part of the bill is that it talks about fixing the age limit for ART and surrogacy between 21-45. It also restricts the number of kids of a surrogate to a maximum three. It also talks about rights of the kids and surrogates. Most prominent among these is the offences occurred under this could be treated as non-bailable, non-compoundable and cognizable. It plans to give the state advisory board powers of a civil court.
However, the bill hardly talks about the health and economic rights of surrogates. The bill only mentions that surrogates could be given monetary compensation and the expenditure on medical over pregnancy which will be borne by the genetic couple. It hardly talks about the minimum monetary benefit for the surrogate or about the post postpartum treatment required. This lacuna can potentially aid in exploiting the poor surrogates for money. The bill is still silent on what happens if the surrogate dies in the course of delivery.
The legislation has meanwhile given many superseding rights to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and has asked the ART clinics to supply all data to the ICMR for maintenance of records. This will surely help in maintaining the ART data nationally to get a correct picture of the business in India. However, India still has a National ART Registry of India, but experts say data pertaining to various dimensions related to ART lie-pregnancy rates, live births, and numbers of cycles are only voluntary to the doctors.
ART has proven to be a boon to many infertile couple. Many foreigners also use ART as they get the treatment comparatively cheap here. Law Commission has already termed surrogacy as a ‘gold spot’. It is a potential technology for boosting medical tourism in India. A strong legislation dealing with different dimensions of the subject can help boost the treatment and also ensure that it is meanwhile regulated to ensure quality and standards and safeguard the interests of people involved in the process.
Union minister of state for health and family welfare, Shripad Yesso Naik, has stated in a written reply to Rajya Sabha March 10 that ICMR is revising the ART (Regulation) Bill based on comments it garnered through several experts. Some ministries and departments have already submitted their comments on the bill. Hope is that the bill gets passed as soon as possible so that the welfare of all involved is secured.
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