India - The Surrogacy Destination

Wonderment of gazing your own child after years of fruitless procedures to end infertility is a joy hard to define. India is the home for largest number of surrogates, who simultaneously enjoy the perks of commercialization. 

After pushing the envelope of commercialized surrogacy in 2002, India became a surrogacy capital with low-cost surrogacy, skilled doctors, scant bureaucracy and a plentiful supply of surrogates. For two reasons India is preferred destination for fertility tourism to attract nationals from Britain, the United States, Australia and Japan, first, low-cost surrogacy. The complete package costs just one-third of the total procedure cost in the United Kingdom and other developed countries. Second, the legal environment is favorable to keep away the infertile couples away from legal tangles.

Magnifying the global picture about surrogacy shows that “surrogate motherhood” is illegal in Italy, banned for commercial purposes in Australia, Spain and China, and is allowed with restrictions in the United States, France and Germany. While in the same time Indian protects the rights of surrogate mothers from being exploited, and defines the rights of children born from surrogacy.

Legal differences between surrogacy procedures in India and other countries

In India, the medical guidelines allow implantation of five embryos in a surrogate mother, which considerably increases the chances of conceiving while in Britain the maximum is two, and European countries allow the implantation of a single embryo.

The latest surrogacy guidelines in India allow the legal rights of child/children to the recipient couple, while simultaneously allowing the surrogate mother to sign away her rights to the baby as soon as it is delivered.Surrogacy in India is an attractive option for couples who wish to have their names on the birth certificate; want to have a professional or limited relationship with their surrogate, but have the benefit of excellent healthcare. Surrogates in India have no parental rights and cannot change their mind about handing over a child to the intended parents.

Although, the revised visa requirements introduced have prohibited parents with less than two years of marriage, foreign same-sex couples, single parents to undertake surrogacy in India. Certain revised laws allow women between 21 and 35 years old to become surrogates. Also, the surrogates are provided with insurance and notarized contracts must be signed between the women and the commissioning parents.

Narrowing down the radar to Central India, surrogacy in Raipur is welcomed without much bedlam about social stigma attached to the process. Surrogacy is one of the listed alternatives in the roles that a woman can outsource in exchange of sum that could churn a minimum livelihood in a developing country. Raipur became the destination of surrogacy in topography after number of successful surrogacy births. Away from the chaos of metro, the city allows privacy to both surrogates and recipient couple.

Dr Neeraj Pahlajani