The legal and moral debate leading to the ban of commercial surrogacy in India

• Autores: Joseph Nixon, Olinda Timms
• Localización: Medicina y Ética: Revista internacional de bioética, deontología y ética médica, ISSN-e 2594-2166, ISSN 0188-5022, Vol. 30, Nº. 3 (julio-setiembre/July-September), 2019, págs. 957-984
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
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• Resumen

  • Assisted Reproductive Technologies ( ART ) offer the possibility of unrelated surrogacy arrangements to infertile couples and childless human relationships. In the late 80s, qualified specialists in India took advantage of the availability of willing surrogates and the absence of regulations, to create a market in commercial surrogacy for clients from within the country and abroad. The Ministry of Health stepped in with guidelines only after strong protests from women’s groups and citizens, following media stories of surrogate hostels, abandoned children and exploitation. Meanwhile, ‘infertility’ clinics mushroomed, offering donor gametes, in-vitro fertilization and surrogacy services at a fraction of the cost in western countries.

    By early 2000s, India had emerged as the most popular destination for commercial surrogacy arrangements. In response to protests from doctors, citizens and human rights groups, and mindful of the ban on commercial surrogacy arrangements in most developed countries, the Government issued ART guidelines that were progressively restrictive; but these did not have the teeth to rein in the lucrative business that commercial surrogacy had transformed into. Finally, in 2016, the Government proposed a Bill that would bring an end to commercial surrogacy. The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2016 addressed surrogacy arrangements exclusively, taking it out of proposed ART Bill that was aimed at comprehensively regu- lating all other aspects of assisted reproduction and the clinics invol- ved. The legislation was directed mainly at the social issues and exploitative elements specific to commercial surrogacy arrange- ments, rather than the technical process. If passed, the Surrogacy Bill will effectively ban commercial surrogacy in India.