Hyderabad: The Kiran Fertility Centre in Banjara Hills has been sealed and its licence cancelled by the district medical and health officers on Monday evening. They have also seized documents pertaining to 500 operations carried out at the centre over the years.
No case has been registered as yet. But the plight of the surrogate mothers, who are in their seventh and ninth months of pregnancy, is still being debated. The police had raided the centre on Saturday and found that the centre was not adhering to the guidelines on surrogacy provided by the Indian Council of Medical Research
A senior source in the DMHO office said that it has been agreed that they must be shifted to government hospitals and offered safe delivery. But before that, each case will have to be scrutinised and any irregularity established. Till that is done, the women cannot be moved out of the centre.
The cases will be evaluated according to the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research, which will require an expert member from the Medical Council of India or a senior gynaecologist to decode it.
To ensure that the health of the surrogate mothers is not affected, doctors, paramedical staff are being allowed to operate the facility but no new patients or outsiders are being allowed inside the premises.
Health officials have not spoken to the concerned women, and the agents who were responsible for bringing them to the centre have gone underground. Late in the night, Kiran Infertility Centre stated that it had got a showcause notice from district medical and health officials and and had been given seven days to reply. The clinic said it had handed over documents that the government had sought, to show that it had followed the rules.
Infertility centre incharge Dr Samit Sekhar said, “We have got permission from the Indian Council of Medical Research, licence from the government of undivided AP which is valid for five years and a certificate of registration from the district medical and health officials. We have produced all these papers before them.”
He said the centre operated on two floors and had a research centre. “We are keeping surrogate mothers with us on the other two floors. There is nothing illegal about it.”
Dr Sekhar said there was a three-party contract which clearly stated that the surrogate mother has to stay with the centre till the completion of childbirth. Hence they need to have clean and neat premises to ensure that mother and child are safe.
According to sources in the district medical and health department, the complaint against the clinic came after an internal financial dispute between the infertility centre and a non-government organisation involved in procuring surrogate mothers for this centre. This complaint prompted the district medical and health officer to take an action against it.
