Health Ministry Finalizes Bill for Surrogacy in India

Legal News India: The Union Healthy Ministry has passed the Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) regulation Bill. According to the bill, anyone acting as a surrogate mother should be between 21-35 years and cannot give birth to more than five children (including her own). The bill has now been sent to the law ministry.

The bill comprises some landmark stipulations:
• Surrogate mothers are not allowed to undertake embryo transfer for the same parents over three times.
• To have a married woman as a surrogate mother, her spouse’s consent is obligatory.
• Only an Indian citizen can be considered for surrogacy within India and women cannot be sent abroad for surrogacy.
• The donor’s identity has to be kept strictly confidential.
• A prospective surrogate mother should not engage in any act that may harm foetus during the pregnancy period or after birth.
• The baby’s birth certificate should bear the name of those individuals who had commissioned the surrogacy.
• In case of any congenital abnormality, the commissioning parents would have to take the child’s custody.