A move to shut down surrogacy industry

NEW DELHI — India’s government has cleared the way for a measure that would ban all commercial surrogacy in the country, allowing only close family relatives to become surrogate mothers. The proposed measure is a blow to the thriving but unregulated rent-a-womb industry that many activists say is exploiting poor women.

The Surrogacy Bill 2016 will be presented in Parliament for approval in the next session. “This is a revolutionary step for women’s welfare,” said Sushma Swaraj, India’s foreign minister, who presided over a panel that examined the legal and ethical issues involved in commercial surrogacy and drafted the bill. “Many socalled childless couples were misusing the wombs of poor women. It was a matter of great worry because there were instances where a girl child or disabled child have been abandoned soon after birth.”

In the past decade, India has emerged as one of the top destinations for childless couples from around the world who pay impoverished women here to give birth to have their children. India and the United States are among a handful of countries where the practice of in-vitro fertilization and embryo transfer is allowed. According to one estimate, at least 40,000 surrogate babies were born in the past decade. Many foreigners came to India to hire affordable surrogate mothers for a price that could range from $8,000 to $40,000. Swaraj said India has about 2,000 surrogacy clinics. A New Delhi-based women’s group called Sama said that the practice was a $400 million industry.

When the new law comes into force, surrogacy will be allowed only for a close family relative of a childless couple under what Swaraj called “altruistic surrogacy.” But only childless, married couples who have waited five years and have a doctor’s certificate to show they are medically unfit to have children are eligible to engage surrogate mothers.

Live-in couples, single parents and same-sex couples cannot opt for surrogacy, because Indian law does not “recognize” gay relationships, Swaraj said Wednesday. “Divorce is highly prevalent in foreign countries. We have had cases where the couple take the child from the surrogate mother and then they get divorced after some time,” she said.