To address the increasingly tangled issue of surrogacy, India’s Home Ministry has issued tough new guidelines—including a ban on foreign gay couples and single people from using Indian women as surrogate mothers.
Now only a “man and woman” who have been married for at least two years will be granted medical visas for such purposes, reports the Times of India.
While it would be still possible for foreigners to come into India under false pretenses, the Ministry of Home Affairs hopes the updates will close any loopholes.
The new regulations come in the wake of exponential growth in Indian surrogates, and legal complications stemming from international arrangements: Many countries—France, Germany, and Italy among them—do not recognize surrogacy. One Norwegian woman was stranded in India for more than two years because Norway refused to accept her as the mother of her child, conceived via surrogate.
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A notice on the policy change was authorized by the Foreign Regional Registration Office on December 17. Among the new regulations:
* Foreigners coming to India to have a surrogate child must be on a medical visa
* Only heterosexual couples married for at least two years are eligible
* The home country’s foreign ministry or embassy must certify they recognize surrogacy
* There must be be official assurance that the child will be allowed to enter the home country as a biological child of the couple
* The procedure must be done at an Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) clinic recognized by the Indian Council of Medical Research
Dionte
Why would anyone use a surrogate in another country when there are plenty of women in the u.s.
Daniel-Reader
The hygiene in India is horrifyingly atrocious. There is quite literally garbage thrown everywhere – in the cities, in the countryside. There is no escape from it. If you visit a resort, the resort will generally be clean but just outside its wall there is crap thrown everywhere. It would be impressive if the government of India cleaned it up, or if the people of India had enough self respect to stop randomly pitching it all over the place.
mlbumiller
@Dionte: It is about legal issues and cost. I had a fried that was a surrogate, the cost her heath insurance was $35,000, she was paid $20,000 then there was the leagal and fertility cost on top. I am sure all that is much less in India.
Hannah
@Dionte: US surrogacy can be $100k+ and many states don’t recognize surrogacy leaving the possibility that the surrogate can keep the baby regardless of signed documents. In India surrogacy is only around $20K and surrogacy is recognized so that biological parents are always declared the parents.
Kieran
What do you expect from CATHOLIC India?
Unite
Surrogacy laws are in its infancy worldwide. Commercial surrogacy is illegal in most western countries but allowed in India. Child born outside the US needs to meet special requirements before he/she can immigrate to the US. The innocent IVF children are placed in a “no man’s land of laws”. What is their fault? If their legal recognition is in limbo, then what about protection of their basic human rights and child rights? Where are the laws for the entire IVF ecosystem? What about protecting the rights of the donors, surrogates and most importantly the IVF child? There has to be an open discussion on protecting RIGHTS of ALL. There are 8 different ways to assign parenthood through IVF. There is ONLY ONE way to assign parenthood through a natural birth. Why are we trying to fit a square peg in a round hole? Have all 8 different scenarios been considered when drafting laws for assigning parenthood for an IVF child?
Pippa123
There is no actual law that prevents anyone from using a surrogate in India.
There are no new laws, there is a new visa requirement which requires pople to be married which is inconsistent with the current ICMR guidelines.