New Delhi: A draft bill which aims to safeguard the rights of surrogate mothers and make parentage of such children legal was cleared by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday.
According to the Health Ministry proposal, the draft Surrogacy Bill, 2016 aims at regulating commissioning of surrogacy in the country in a proper manner.
Official sources said the Cabinet gave its green signal to the Bill to be introduced in Parliament.
A Group of Ministers (GoM) had recently cleared the bill and had referred it to the Union Cabinet for a final call. The GoM was constituted at the behest of the Prime Minister's Office. Apart from Health Minister J P Nadda, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal were among those part of the GoM.
According to the bill, no one can hire a surrogate mother to carry a baby anymore. The bill also puts an end to commercial surrogacy, which means no one can ‘rent a womb’.
The bill states that surrogacy will be permitted only for proven infertility, for altruistic purposes where only medical expenses will be paid and not for carrying the child. The bill further reads that only close relatives can be surrogates and no women shall act as a surrogate mother more than once in her lifetime.
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Even foreigners are not permitted to take part in this process after the Ministry of External Affairs raised concerns over citizenship, babies being abandoned or visa and passport issues.
“New bill proposes complete ban on commercial surrogacy. Only legally-wedded Indian couples to have children through surrogacy; foreigners and OCI card holders barred,” said External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
"Unmarried couples, single parents, live-in partners and homosexuals cannot opt for surrogacy as per the new bill," Swaraj added.
To safeguard the interests of the surrogate mother, the child and the commissioning parents, the bill spells out the mandatory “health insurance coverage” for the mother throughout the pregnancy and till two months after the delivery.
The bill also invites legal action which includes fine and imprisonment of the prospective parents in case they refuse to accept a baby with health problems or deformity.
According to the proposed law, only Indian couples who have been married for at least five years can have children through surrogacy.
The government had recently admitted that in the absence of a statutory mechanism to control commissioning of surrogacy at present, there have been cases of pregnancies by way of surrogacy, including in rural and tribal areas, leading to possible exploitation of women by unscrupulous elements.
Drafted in 2007 by the then Congress government- the Assisted Reproductive Technology bill (ART) bill underwent enormous discussions till 2015 has now been narrowed down and will deal with issues related to “surrogacy” only.
To prevent exploitation of women, especially those in rural and tribal areas, the government has prohibited foreigners from commissioning surrogacy in the country and has drafted this comprehensive legislation, the sources said.
The government had recently said in Parliament that provisions are being made in the draft Bill to make parentage of children born out of surrogacy "legal and transparent".
