Surrogate Motherhood

The desire for motherhood leads infertile couples/single persons/gay couples to search for alternative solutions, and surrogacy presents itself as the most viable alternative. In some cases surrogacy is the only available option for parents who wish to have a child that is biologically related to them. Slowly but steadily India is emerging as a popular destination for surrogacy arrangements for many rich foreigners’. Cheap medical facilities, advanced reproductive technological know-how, coupled with poor socio-economic conditions, and a lack of regulatory laws in India, in this regard combined to make India an attractive option.

However, with the entry of financial arrangements in exchange of the surrogate child, surrogate motherhood has

World’s second IVF baby and India’s first IVF baby, Kanupriya alias Durga was born in Kolkata on Oct. 3, 1978. This started the abrupt and tremendous growth of ART, and India became the hub for the ART procedures.
Due to easily available Surrogates, cheap medical cost with reasonable facilities, India has been a studio for genetic research, ART and IVF. The Indian market has emerged rapidly due to socio-cultural factors, women with health and teetotalers lifestyles have already proven as ideal to be surrogate mothers. Surrogacy laws in the country are comparatively flexible and easy to go.
India is considered to be the hub centre for surrogacy as:
 The cost of the complete procedure is very low.
 The laws in India are flexible regarding surrogacy.
 In India, the availability of surrogates is easy and cheap.
 Success rate in India is higher as doctors can implant 4 to 5 embryos into a surrogate mother, whereas in the UK, the maximum limit is 2, while in many other European countries, the limit is a single

Clinically called assisted reproductive technology (ART), it has been in vogue in India since 1978, and today an estimated two lakh clinics across the country offer artificial insemination, IVF and surrogacy. So much so, in the recent decision of the Supreme Court on September 29 in baby Manji Yamada’s case, it was observed that "commercial surrogacy reaching industry proportions is sometimes referred to by the emotionally charged and potentially offensive terms wombs for rent, outsourced pregnancies or baby farms". It is presumably considered legitimate because no Indian law prohibits surrogacy. But then, as a retort, no law permits surrogacy either. However, the changing face of law is now going to usher in a new rent-a-womb law as India is set to be the only country in the world to legalise commercial surrogacy. Involvement of foreign customers brings a whirlwind of potential problematic situations that might crop up. Trouble might arise while deciding the nationality of the baby. For instance it was in Baby Manji’s case in 2008 that Supreme Court of India held that commercial surrogacy was legal in India which involved disputes regarding the nationality of the baby. The facts of the case were that Japanese baby Manji born to an Indian surrogate mother with IVF technology upon fertilisation of her Japanese