Most test tube clinics in Odisha unregistered

By-Manish Kumar

Bhubaneswar, May 27: Under the absence of stringent laws, many unregulated Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) clinics from the state have started flourishing. Many of them are working and treating infertile couples by taking exorbitant prices but hardly care about informing the centre about their functioning.

Many such undeterred private clinics have been blatantly flouting Ministry of Home Affairs 2012 notice to get them registered with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) besides violating the Union health ministry’s National Guidelines 2005 for Accreditation, Supervision & Regulation of ART Clinics in India which talks about a national registration of human reproductions through ART.

An RTI filed by this correspondent with ICMR reveals that merely two ART clinics from the state out of six have till now registered with the central body. The only two registered clinics from the state according to the RTI reply are-Swarnajayanti Infertility Clinic based in Chandrashekharpur and Centre of Human Reproduction, IMS and Sum Hospital based Kalinga Vihar. Both hail from Bhubaneswar.

Dr R S Sharma, Senior Deputy Director General, ICMR said, “If an ART clinic is not registered with ICMR, they cannot entertain any foreign couple for treatment of infertility. Though as per the provisions of the proposed ART (Regulation) Bill, it is mandatory for all the ART clinics to register with the ICMR National Registry but the bill has not yet been passed by the Parliament.”

Many IVF clinics seldom register with ICMR because there are hardly laws made which can nail the offenders. Defaulters say MHA 2012 notification says it is ‘necessary’ and not mandatory, thus not binding to them. Moreover, no agency has been entrusted with the task of taking legal actions against offenders.

Many infertility experts from the city too opine that due to lack of stringent law and legislation, many unregulated and unprofessional ART clinics are flourishing in the state. Dr Veena Panda, an infertility expert from the city said, “Lack of a strong law is giving many unscrupulous elements from the medical fraternity an opportunity to exploit the technology to make it a business. Many a times, several ART experts play with ethics and often do unethical things like using gamets from outside without the consent of the parties among others to make quick money.”         

Another IVF expert on anonymity said, “Giving data related to ART births to ICMR is crucial to maintain a national database on the success and failure of the technique. A central data repository can give a picture about the effectiveness of the technique in the local population and further research can help in strengthening it.”

Meanwhile, buoyed by these lacunae many ART clinics have allegedly conned infertile couples. Two months back, a group of nine infertile couple moved to State Commission of Women for registering their complaint relating to cheating by city-based Srusti Test Tube Baby Centre. Their contention was fraudulent promises made by them. A copy of the complaint is in possession with this newspaper.

One of the complainants, Swapnil Patel (name changed) said, “I went to undergo IUI at Srusti Test Tube clinic, but the doctors there forced me to go for IVF which is much costlier than IUI. Moreover, they assured that there is 100% success rate through IVF. Twice I underwent it and spent around Rs 7 lakh but to no yield. My contention is how they can advertise false claims.” According to experts the maximum estimated success rate of IVF is 40%.

None of the unregistered ART clinic from the state responded to calls, SMSs and emails made by me. Orissa has around six ART clinics as of now. Keya fertility centre from the city said their registration process is under process but they are already registered with Orissa government.

According to the experts the only solution to the menace is the ART (Regulation) Bill 2010 which talks about mandatory registration, legal action against violators, grievance redressal body, national and state monitoring bodies etc. The bill has been sent to wider consultation with the experts after which it will be introduced in the Parliament for enacting a stringent law to regulate ART clinics in the country.

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What is Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART)  

Assisted Reproductive Technology refers to the medical interventions used to produce offspring in infertile couples. It varies from simple Intra-uterine Insemination to complex ones like In-vitro-Fertilization (IVF) commonly called as test tube baby technique. Other techniques involve-Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection and Gamate Intro-Fallopian Transfer (GIFT). Many a times IVF (test tube baby) is used interchangeably with ART.    

(Published on May 28th, 2015 in Orissa POST newspaper)