2009 could prove to be a pivotal year for Indian surrogacy. After an eventful 2008 which saw the Supreme Court validating commercialised surrogacy, deeming it a virtual industry, the participants of this growing trend will now look forward to the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill which is widely expected to be passed as law in the next parliamentary session before the end of 2009.
The Bill, which is now open to public debate, is aimed to regulate this ballooning industry which most industry experts estimated to be worth US$500million. With less paperwork and overall costs as compared to other countries which have legalised surrogacy, India is now the premier destination for childless couples who have exhausted every visible option of having their own children.
Nonetheless, the impending introduction of the Bill has been a widely debated topic among medical practitioners, lawmakers and fertility tourists from all over the world. Proponents of the Bill say that it will help regulate and monitor (through the National Advisory Board for Assisted Reproductive Technology) fertility clinics which support surrogacy programs, weeding out uncertified fertility practitioners who lack quality control and underpay their surrogates.
Others say that a law governing the surrogacy industry will also boost reproductive tourism and formalize the legality of the practice that has, up until the Supreme Court case of 2008, been guided by guidelines by the Indian Council of Medical Research (IMR) since its inception in 2002. The Supreme Court case in 2008, which ruled on the case of a Japanese surrogate baby who was legally unable to leave India after its parents divorced shortly before delivery, set in motion a sharp revision of the ICMR guidelines that critics condemned as being full of loopholes.
The biggest attack on surrogacy, however, lies outside the quasi-legal framework (the ICMR guidelines) that has been supporting it since 2002. Human rights activists, conservative fertility doctors, lawyers and government officials have spoken out on the ethical considerations that the surrogacy industry has fashioned: Exploitation and under-compensation of poor women, the authorizing of homosexual parenthood, the lack of proper audits and even the undermining of Indian medical professionalism have been expressed in various media outlets.
The Indian Surrogate is a firsthand look into the issues that has enveloped the industry. More importantly, this package aims to provide a better understanding of the people – doctors, surrogate parents, fertility tourists and the surrogates – that built up this controversial industry.
