Are they smuggling out the babies after doing surrogacy in India ?
Posted Nov 18 2008 12:17am
I am amazed by how much media interest there is in the "surrogacy boom" which is being reported from India. However, I have a number of worries about this, which have still not been clarified.
Today, surrogacy is technically legal in India ( since there is no law which regulates it). The reason why so many infertile couples from the US and UK are rushing to India for surrogacy treatment is that not only is IVF treatment much less expensive here, surrogates also charge much less ! Doing the surrogacy treatment in an IVF clinic is not a problem at all and any IVF clinic can perform this with ease , so this is not an issue.
However, the problems start after the surrogate gives birth. At present, there is no legal protection for surrogacy in India, which means there is no secure mechanism by which foreign couples can take their baby back with them to their own country.
Let's look at this closely and assume the treatment has been successful; the pregnancy has been uneventful; and the child is now born in an Indian clinic. Whose name is going to appear on the birth certificate ? How will the infertile couple claim parenthood ? How will they take the child back with them to their home country after the birth ? And what happens if the surrogate ( or her husband) changes her mind and refuses to hand over the baby ? Or blackmails you for custody ?
While many clinics talk about the " Indian Council of Medical Research ( ICMR ) guidelines for surrogacy"; and about how they make the surrogate sign an agreement to protect the infertile couple, what they do not tell the patient is that the guidelines are just a piece of paper which have no legal validity whatsoever !
I am still amazed ( and concerned) as to how foreign couples are taking their surrogate babies back with them , given the legal vacuum which exists today. Are doctors conniving with them to put false names on the birth certificates ( which means the obliging doctor puts the surrogate's name on the birth certificate, and not the birth mother's)? Or are they smuggling these babies out ?
The most worrisome is that effectively a "legal blackmarket adoption" channel has now been opened up ! An unscrupulous doctor could handover an unwanted new born baby ( from an unmarried mother, for example) to a rich infertile couple, and claim that it was actually genetically theirs because they had undertaken surrogacy treatment ! Not only would this allow couples to bypass the regular legal adoption channels, it would create an avenue for some crooked doctors to make a lot of quick bucks !
I am amazed by how much media interest there is in the "surrogacy boom" which is being reported from India. However, I have a number of worries about this, which have still not been clarified.
Today, surrogacy is technically legal in India ( since there is no law which regulates it). The reason why so many infertile couples from the US and UK are rushing to India for surrogacy treatment is that not only is IVF treatment much less expensive here, surrogates also charge much less ! Doing the surrogacy treatment in an IVF clinic is not a problem at all and any IVF clinic can perform this with ease , so this is not an issue.
However, the problems start after the surrogate gives birth. At present, there is no legal protection for surrogacy in India, which means there is no secure mechanism by which foreign couples can take their baby back with them to their own country.
Let's look at this closely and assume the treatment has been successful; the pregnancy has been uneventful; and the child is now born in an Indian clinic. Whose name is going to appear on the birth certificate ? How will the infertile couple claim parenthood ? How will they take the child back with them to their home country after the birth ? And what happens if the surrogate ( or her husband) changes her mind and refuses to hand over the baby ? Or blackmails you for custody ?
While many clinics talk about the " Indian Council of Medical Research ( ICMR ) guidelines for surrogacy"; and about how they make the surrogate sign an agreement to protect the infertile couple, what they do not tell the patient is that the guidelines are just a piece of paper which have no legal validity whatsoever !
I am still amazed ( and concerned) as to how foreign couples are taking their surrogate babies back with them , given the legal vacuum which exists today. Are doctors conniving with them to put false names on the birth certificates ( which means the obliging doctor puts the surrogate's name on the birth certificate, and not the birth mother's)? Or are they smuggling these babies out ?
The most worrisome is that effectively a "legal blackmarket adoption" channel has now been opened up ! An unscrupulous doctor could handover an unwanted new born baby ( from an unmarried mother, for example) to a rich infertile couple, and claim that it was actually genetically theirs because they had undertaken surrogacy treatment ! Not only would this allow couples to bypass the regular legal adoption channels, it would create an avenue for some crooked doctors to make a lot of quick bucks !
Why isn't anyone else worried ?