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Latest Surrogacy News
'Rent-a-womb' to see a
boom
CH SUSHIL RAO
Times of India
September 23, 2003
HYDERABAD: If the Indian Council of
Medical Research (ICMR) has its way, 'rent-a-womb' could
be the next booming industry in the country.
The ICMR, the
nodal body which oversees medical research in the
country, will shortly announce a final set of guidelines
on assisted reproductive technologies. If these
guidelines get legal sanction, then the 'rent-a-womb'
concept, now restricted to the confines of a laboratory,
could be the next big thing in the Indian medical
industry.
According to
the present guidelines, no relative or person known to a
couple going in for the therapy must act as a surrogate.
Surrogacy is
an arrangement in which a woman agrees to carry a
pregnancy, which is genetically unrelated to her, to its
full term. She delivers the child and hands it over to
the genetic parents. Since couples fear that strangers
who act as surrogates could pose legal problems, they
often rope in relatives or friends to carry the
pregnancy. "In most cases I treat, the couples usually
employ services of a relative or a friend to carry the
pregnancy," a well-known gynaecologist confirmed.
In
one case, when a couple needed a surrogate for their
child, it was the man's mother who carried the
pregnancy. Inconceivable? Truth is such things do
happen. And that too in this very city.
Sometime back,
a woman in labour was brought to a hospital for the
delivery. But a couple who accompanied her informed the
hospital that the pregnant woman was only a surrogate
for their child, so her name should not appear on
official records.
The ICMR
clearly states that a woman, carrying a child
biologically unrelated to her, must register as a
patient in her own name and mention that she is a
surrogate mother.
"After the
guidelines were made public last year and put up for
discussion, several suggestions were received. These
were incorporated in the guidelines and a final set will
probably be out in a month or so," an ICMR official told
The Times of India from New Delhi.
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