Tawde proposes pvt surrogacy bill
Bharatiya Janata Party Opposition leader Vinod Tawde introduced a private bill on surrogacy in the Legislative Council on Friday.
The private bill outlines purpose, eligibility of couple/individuals seeking assisted reproductive technology (ART), norms, eligibility, duties, offences, penalties, and complaints regarding ART and many other aspects in detail.
The proposed name for the bill is Maharashtra Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2011. It extends to the whole of Maharashtra, the private bill stated.
For eligibility of a surrogate, the bill proposes that, “A woman who agrees to act as a surrogate mother under this Act shall be a resident of Maharashtra. No ART bank/AR clinic shall receive or send a resident of Maharashtra abroad or to other state for the purpose of surrogacy.”
The Supreme Court in 2002 had recognised commercial surrogacy as legal, wherein, a surrogate mother could receive financial compensation. India, in recent years, has emerged as a prime destination for surrogacy. Indian surrogates have been increasingly popular with infertile couples in industrialised nations for relative absence of any rules and regulations relating to surrogacy along with availability of low-cost surrogate.
In his reasoning for introducing a private bill on surrogacy, Mr Tawde said, “In the Indian context, surrogacy cannot be viewed only as a commercial contract. It has cultural and emotional aspects attached to it. The absence of any legislation to regulate the use of ART and especially of surrogacy, make women vulnerable to exploitation.”
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