SURROGACY: A BLESSING FOR MODERN SOCIETY

Relevance:

G.S paper I:

Society and social issues:

• Role of women and women’s organization, population and associated issues, poverty

Sociology:

• Systems of Kinship in India: Family and marriage in India.

• Population policy and family planning.

• Emerging issues: ageing, sex ratios, child and infant mortality, reproductive health.

Context:

Infertility is an issue escalating in modern society. Couples who are not able to conceive a child can opt for surrogacy. Surrogacy provides hope and optimism to those who are depressed and gloomy for not having children.

Background

Surrogacy is not a norm known only to the present society but it has been practised throughout history in some form or the other, be it a reference of Gandhari from Mahabharata who gave birth to a mole which consisted of many cells or Devki bearing her seventh child through embryo transfer.
Surrogacy is an arrangement in which a woman agrees to undertake pregnancy, labour and delivery for any other person who is unable to conceive or who do not want to conceive.

What are the reasons behind?
The reasons for renting a womb are many like physiological conditions due to which not able to bear a child, don’t want to pass genetic diseases to their offspring, repeated miscarriages, homosexuality, age factor as more women are opting to marry late thus reproductive issues, ambitious women who are too busy to pursue the goals that they can’t afford to divert their attention by having a baby etc and other reasons to go for surrogacy is that adoption doesn’t have a genetic link with the child and some women want to lend their womb to get their dreams fulfilled which they can’t do otherwise due to poverty.

Scenario in India

In India, giving birth to a child is a very sacrosanct act arising out of a marriage and this concept of surrogacy is somehow coming in conflict and undermining the concept of marriage and the traditional family concept is being lost.

• Surrogacy was said to commoditise children since the concept is using the reproductive abilities of women to become professional baby-makers for financial payment.
• It was also seen that the poor surrogate women were exploited and their health and emotional and psychological well being was harmed as they could develop feelings and emotions for their babies but they are not allowed to have any connection with the baby after delivery.
• moreover, cinema has been called to be a mirror of societal attitude and movies like ‘when the bough breaks’ and ‘chori chori chupke chupke’ where the surrogate mother turned psychic and developed affection for the father and child and eventually refused to deliver the child destroyed faith in the very rationale of surrogacy.
• Thus, legislation was badly needed to come for rescue and provide rights and remedies about surrogacy. The Indian surrogacy law bans the commercial surrogacy and allows only altruistic one to those who can’t conceive.
• It means there will not be any buying and selling of a child and surrogate women will not be paid any money.
• The law also prescribes that surrogacy clinics are to be registered and maintain a record for 25 years, and only Indian citizen can go for surrogacy as the foreigners were exploiting children in the name of surrogacy and there had been jurisdictional conflict in case of citizenship and nationality of the child born.
• The unmarried, single, LGBT, live-in partners are excluded from the purview of surrogacy law, it means that they can’t have a child through surrogacy.
• The law has recognised a right of a surrogate woman to be insured and the child cannot be abandoned in case of any deformity. The surrogate mother has to be married and should be a close relative of the couple who wants to go for surrogacy.
• And the commissioning couple has to be married for five years and should not have any biological children except in certain circumstances.
• The surrogate child will have the same rights as that of the biological or adopted child and in case there has been a violation of these provisions there can be imprisonment up to 10 years and fine up to Rs 10 lakh.
• But it has been a general trend that perfect welfare legislation is made by the State but its implementation still has issues and there are always loopholes that can be taken advantage of.
• But still, people need to change their attitude towards surrogacy and it should not be considered derogatory to the barren couple rather it is a way out to the problem of barrenness.
• And after having a law to that effect the rights of surrogate, child and commissioning parents are protected and the law provides a remedy in case of any violation.