Surrogacy Regulations Introduced In India To Stop Exploitation

For the many families who have difficulty having their own children, surrogate mothers are the best option.

India is the capital of “surrogacy tourism” but where is the line between bribery and free choice for these women?

India is one of the most popular places to find surrogates for westerners because it is a lot cheaper and largely unregulated. 

One pregnancy can earn a surrogate up to £4,200 with a bonus for twins. This is equal to 10 to 15 years wages.

These issues are finally being addressed by Indian authorities though legislation about to be introduced. 

New measures will include:

• compulsory proof that the child will have automatic citizenship in the new parents’ home country to avoid legal battles
• stopping the IVF clinics from “sourcing, supplying and taking care of the surrogate mothers themselves” to avoid “corruption and malpractice”
• maximum age of surrogates to be 35
• maximum number of pregnancies for surrogates to be 5 (including their own children)
• mandatory medical insurance
• a ban on contact between surrogate and the child after birth, making it a criminal offence with jail time

I think they should also lower the pay to something more reasonable and have regulations around this. As much as I want to trust that they are not being exploited, I think getting 10 to 15 years pay in 9 months could be part of the problem.

Another concern here is the ban on clinics taking care of the mothers.

Currently, the surrogates face a lot of discrimination by a conservative society. One surrogate has been disowned by her parents for doing this and a lot of people don’t understand how a woman can be pregnant without having sex.

As well, before they get the money from the pregnancy and can afford a better lifestyle, a lot of the women live in poverty in the slums.

Women like this need the help of the clinic to provide housing and shelter to make sure they stay healthy during the pregnancy.

The problem comes when these women and the prospective parents are “exploited by unscrupulous middlemen”.

I don’t think banning clinics taking care of the women is the way to go about this. I think what they need to do is regulate the clinics themselves.

Have rules about their relationships with the women: how often they meet them, how they approach them to do this (no coercion or bribery), and a proper legal contract of some kind to make sure they both keep up their ends of the bargain.

While we need to help these women through the pregnancy and respect their decisions, we also need to make sure they are not being exploited. The best way to do that is through rules and regulations of governments and support from charities and bodies local to where they live.

It can be difficult to determine what’s a rational informed decision and what’s explotiation or bribery, but hopefully these new regulations will help sort it all out.