India versus Thailand on Surrogacy

A slew of surrogacy scandals have lifted a lid on Thailand’s largely unregulated commercial surrogacy industry, which has been around for over a decade. Below are the few controversial cases that drew a large amount of flak and also led to Thai military government’s decision to draft a new law that is expected to outlaw the business of surrogacy.

Below are the three scandals that brought unregulated surrogacy sector of Thailand under scanner –

An Australian couple, who had hired a Thai surrogate to their twins, returned home with a healthy baby girl but left behind her twin brother with Down syndrome, in late July.

Shortly after, a new case of 24-year-old Japanese man who fathered at least 16 babies via Thai surrogates emerged.

A third case emerged when an Australian man charged with sexually abusing twin girls he fathered several years ago with a Thai surrogate. The man was charged in an Australian court last year for committing indecent acts with a child.

Surrogacy Laws in Thailand

Thailand has become a favorite destination for couples from Australia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, and a low-cost alternative to the United States. However, Thailand is one of the few countries in Asia where commercial surrogacy is not specifically banned by law. Previously, the Medical Council of Thailand had a regulation stating that doctors cannot perform surrogacy for pay or risk losing their license. But that penalty has rarely been enforced and there are no rules covering surrogacy agencies or surrogate mothers, leaving room for commercial surrogacy to occur without oversight.

Thailand's New Draft Law on Surrogacy

In response to the recent global attention, Thailand’s military government has vowed to shut down the commercial surrogacy industry. A draft law expected to pass the junta-appointed legislature sometime this year prohibits commercial surrogacy and would penalize offenders with up to 10 years in prison. Agencies, advertisers, or recruiters of surrogate mothers will face up to five years in jail and a fine of up to 100,000 baht ($3,000). Experts say they fear the law will not end commercial surrogacy in Thailand and instead push it underground.

Surrogacy Laws in India

Indian Surrogacy Laws remained lose for years, while the medical council continued its attempt to regulate surrogacy sector for years. After 2002, Surrogacy Laws in India have undergone an immense change. The Union of India is taking steps to for legalizing surrogacy and making India a risk-free destination when it comes to international surrogacy arrangements. The Indian Government is implementing legal mechanisms to ensure that the child born out of surrogacy arrangement in India would have a safe passage back home. Though such measures have affected few nationals, it could be considered legally safe in the long run for surrogacy in India.

After rounds of discussion with various ministries, the Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Bill, 2013 has been cleared and will be presented before Union Cabinet during winter session of 2014, confirmed a senior health ministry official on September 22. The decision comes closely after the regularisation and legal framework of Surrogacy in India was debated. The undeniable fact about several illegal ART units cropping up across the country to shortchange the infertile couples gives a reason for the urgent need of passing the bill.

Indian Government has also chalked out certain guidelines on surrogacy to make the whole process transparent and allow to hitches. The Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Bill, 2013 seeks to address issues like number of pregnancies allowed to a surrogate mother, age limit and due compensation paid to the surrogates. A framework would be designed for foreigners to seek surrogacy help from India surrogate mothers. With this, the issues of consent and health of surrogate mother would also be resolved.

The Health Ministry has considered the fact that commercial surrogacy changes to biological ability of a woman to reproduce into a commercial activity when money transaction is involved and lack of proper legal framework further complicated the whole process. 

Therefore, an immediate need of strong legal provisions to safeguard the interest of the surrogate mother, commissioning parents and the child born through surrogacy process has been considered.

Dr Neeraj Pahlajani

Obstetrician & IVF Specialist

(MS, DNB, FMAS, DRM - Germany)

MBBS - Lady Harding Medical College - New Delhi

MS - Obstetrics and Gynecology (PGI - Rohtak)

DNB - Obstetrics and Gynecology

FMAS - World Association of Laparoscopic Surgeons

DRM - Diploma in Reproductive Medicine (Germany)

Fellow in IVF & Embryology – (USA)

For Low Cost IVF India, Raipur (Chhattisgarh - India),

Pahlajani Test Tube Baby Centre

(Mata Laxmi Nursing Home)

Anupam Nagar, Near T.V. Tower, Raipur (Chhattisgarh) India

Phone:  +91- 771- 4052967, +91- 771- 4053285 Mobile:  +91- 9770997645, +91- 9329630455

Email - contact@raipurivf.com

Visit Our Websites

Pahlajani Test Tube Baby Centre - Raipur

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Pahlajani Critical Pregnancy Care Centre - Raipur

Raipur - Steadily Emerging as Fertility Destination

How surrogacy became popular in Chhattisgarh? 

The journey of infertile couples end in Raipur to seek surrogacy assistance after Pahlajani Test Tube Baby Center provided services fertility assistance with in-house embryologist and IVF/ICSI services. With rare combination of state-of-the-art medical infrastructure and potential IVF and surrogacy options in Raipur, it has gradually fueled the international demand. Raipur can be termed as a bastion for couples wanting to ply their gametes at cheaper rates. With low traffic frequency rates, uber medicinal and infrastructural at hospitals, Raipur has become one of the favorite destinations for foreigners wanting to undergo fertility treatment.

Dedicated team of doctors and devoted surrogate mothers attracted more and more couples every year to Raipur for IVF. Slowly but steadily, Raipur has emerged as a destination for fertility tourism. It is among one of the rapidly developing cities in country, the burgeoning idea of medical tourism parallelly has caught the imagination fertility tourists living in geographically dispersed cities towards the state.

It was observed that medical tourists were more liberal than ever for undergoing treatment in Raipur, after several infertile couples from USA, Europe, Africa and even neighboring countries like Bangladesh and Afghanistan came here it to find the cure. Success stories of the IVF and surrogacy in Raipur has put the doubts of couples to rest, who are otherwise skeptical about the treatment because of the obvious complications associated to it. Also, the cheap IVF treatment offered in Raipur has warded off the discomfort of pocket burning fees demanded in the first world countries. Visit counts of tourists tripping Raipur has multiplied in past one decade, with most of them returning with assured pregnancy results. The city has won an international recognition after high ratio of infertile couples was blessed with children.

The day commercial surrogacy was declared legal in India it also opened the flood gates of all the inhibitions related to surrogacy and IVF in the country. After facing a tough rebound from less liberal countries, medical tourism has emerged as a successful intersection of inexpensive and medical infrastructure in Raipur. In years, the city has witnessed high influx of tourists seeking medical care willing to travel the tribal land. Skewed population distribution in metros, and commercialized health care has locomoted the infertile tourists towards Raipur. The infertility hospitals have been able to preserve their appeals for assuring best treatment to patients. A taboo associated with IVF and surrogacy is dying a fast death after Raipur was appended to the list of best known IVF and surrogacy destinations.

Fertility problems can have a devastating emotional impact on couples. Some couples will conceive naturally, in time, but for those who do not, the pain and loss can be immense, and have a sudden and significant negative impact on relationships. Infertility is a multi-layered and complex phenomenon, and a number of issues are involved for the people living with it, as it spans the biological, emotional, physical, social, financial and psychological aspects of lives and relationships. Couples going through the treatment journey can feel stigmatised because of their infertility, that it is still a taboo subject, which makes them feel somehow they have failed.

Their reasons for not having children are varied, often deeply personal – and sometimes, circumstantial. Around 20 per cent of pregnancies end in miscarriage – and yet most women never reveal they have had one. We find out how couples have tried to deal with their grief and meet a pioneering doctor who is looking for solutions to recurrent problems.

Pahlajani Test Tube Baby Center is committed to bring world-class services in assisted reproduction including IVF in Raipur and IVF for Odisha people and other adjoining states. For low cost IVF in Raipur, comparatively higher surrogacy rate Pahlajani IVF Center provides comprehensive services in IUI, IVF-ET, ICSI, Blastocyst, IVF treatment, egg donation, surrogate motherhood, male infertility treatment, semen banking, embryo freezing, sexual psychological problem, PCOS, MESA, PESA, TESA, Hormone Analysis, Laproscopic surgery, Hysteroscopy surgery, laser assisted hatching, and embryo biopsy.

Dr Neeraj Pahlajani

Website

http://www.raipurivf.com/

http://www.pahlajanipregnancycare.com/

http://lowcostivfindia.com/

Email

drpahlajaniraipur@gmail.com

India to Regularise Surrogacy Soon

After rounds of discussion with various ministries, the Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Bill, 2013 has been cleared and will be presented before Union Cabinet during winter session of 2014, confirmed a senior health ministry official on September 22. The decision comes closely after the regularisation and legal framework of Surrogacy in India was debated. The undeniable fact about several illegal ART units cropping up across the country to shortchange the infertile couples gives a reason for the urgent need of passing the bill.

According to V M Katoch, Secretary (Health Research), the bill to regulate Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) and In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) is likely to be introduced in winter session of parliament. He said that Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has been going through the draft and presentation of the bill. The news has come as a great relief for patients and doctors as well.

The recent Thailand controversy has brought the infertility clinics across the globe under scanner. Throughout the years, surrogacy in India remained unregulated but the day bill was cleared in cabinet it gave hopes to hundreds and hundreds people in India as well as overseas. It was a time between the years 2008 and 2013, when surrogacy practice in India was questioned under the heads of social and ethical issues.

Considering the fact that growing surrogacy tourism in India and increase in number of patients from overseas to commission surrogacy due to low cost surrogacy in India, the surrogacy sector needed to be regularised. In India, the practice of commercial surrogacy started in the year 2002. Twelve years after the specialists gave birth to thousands of babies through this process, still the controversy about commercialisation denies dying. Surrogacy was commercialised for equal opportunity to surrogate mothers to support their families with the money they get. However, the tales about exploitation of women in the name of surrogacy have grabbed the headlines every now and then. 

With the regularisation of surrogacy, there would be an end to certain illegal practices, which has been tainting the surrogacy practice in India. This signals the efforts of government to safeguard the rights of commissioning parents and surrogates.

Indian Government has also chalked out certain guidelines on surrogacy to make the whole process transparent and allow to hitches. The Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Bill, 2013 seeks to address issues like number of pregnancies allowed to a surrogate mother, age limit and due compensation paid to the surrogates. A framework would be designed for foreigners to seek surrogacy help from India surrogate mothers. With this, the issues of consent and health of surrogate mother would also be resolved.

The Health Ministry has considered the fact that commercial surrogacy changes to biological ability of a woman to reproduce into a commercial activity when money transaction is involved and lack of proper legal framework further complicated the whole process. 

Therefore, an immediate need of strong legal provisions to safeguard the interest of the surrogate mother, commissioning parents and the child born through surrogacy process has been considered.

For more details visit website – www.raipurivf.com

Or email me at drpahlajaniraipur@gmail.com

Dr Neeraj Pahlajani

Life of Surrogates at Pahlajani Test Tube Baby Center

Referring to one of the news publishing about social activists demanding to ban commercial surrogacy and to regularise it like egg donation. In the article, the data of three states are cited in reference to illiteracy, poverty and unemployment of women, who are mostly unaware of the contract terms and agree to become a surrogate mother mainly for funding the education of their children.

However, the scenario is different for women agreeing to assist infertile couples for surrogacy in Raipur. Although, Chhattisgarh has high women illiteracy rate but women who agree to become surrogate mothers for interfile couples at 

Pahlajani Test Tube Baby Center are given best understanding of the contract to ensure transparency and safeguard of the rights of both surrogate and infertile couple. 

To ensure that a surrogate does not feel exploited, a better understanding of her expectations from the process is taken. Considering that surrogacy is “commercial” in India, the balance in cost of surrogacy in India and remuneration to the surrogate mother is maintained.

At Pahlajani Surrogacy Care, the surrogates are kept under best medical care. They live in an environment of peace and sisterhood under the roof of Pahlajani Surrogacy Home, where they are given best medical assistance.

Indian surrogacy is often targeted about the authenticity of contract signed between commissioning parents and surrogates. The fact cannot be denied that there are several clinics which do not adhere to the provisions of remunerations. However, Pahlajani Surrogacy Care ensures that the rights of a surrogate, who is assisting a childless couple to complete their family.

Pahlajani Test Tube Baby Center is the only center in Chhattisgarh having an in-house embryologist and does not conduct IVF/ICSI in batches. With the number of successes in helping the childless couples in having their babies by providing best medical assistance to both surrogate and commissioning couple, we have climbed another step in the ladder of human connection. Knowing that giving birth for someone else is a job only a selfless human being with most giving heart can perform, Pahlajani Surrogacy Care derives its confidence from surrogates for showing their faith and performing commendable jobs for couples.

Along with the celebration of different festivals with the surrogates, we celebrate Mother’s Day, Women’s Day and even organise plantation drives for surrogates. Surrogates are made to feel like home in our surrogacy homes. The reports about the violation of laws and shortchanging the surrogates are baffling. Rights of surrogates should be safeguarded and they should be given best medical care.

Dr Neeraj Pahlajani

Your First Meeting With Surrogate - What You Need to Ask?

Your first meeting with a woman who would carry your baby for next nine months can be awkward. You might have spent meticulous efforts to form a massive checklist of questions, like:

“Do you smoke?”

“Are you sexually active?”

But these are not the right questions to be asked on first meeting. Don’t worry, your doubts would be cleared after the surrogate’s medical and psychological exams, and you’ll be made aware of them by a professional.

When you sit down face-to-face with a potential gestational carrier, try to empathize with what she’s going through. After a huge amount of deliberation and soul searching, she’s decided to do something incredibly generous, terrifically inconvenient, and more than a tiny bit risky, for a virtual stranger. She is also nervous about the meeting, you need to ease her.

1. Why did you become a surrogate?

Although her weak financial stability might be the reason, but it can never be the only reason. Yes, money is important but with all a surrogate goes through, she’s going to earn that cash, and it is a limited sum. No one’s getting rich as a gestational surrogate, so it’s a safe bet she has bigger motives.

2. What were your other pregnancies like?

You will know all the medical information about the surrogate and her previous pregnancies from her medical examination report. But by asking this question you show some curiosity and empathy towards her. It can be a good start to build a good relationship. By knowing small details about her cravings and small needs, you’ll know just what to put in her care package.

3. How do your friends and family feel about you being a surrogate?

Surrogate mother needs support as it is both physically and emotionally demanding. If you assure her of becoming a good support and appreciate what an amazing thing she’s doing, then she would be happy throughout her pregnancy.

4. Will you be comfortable if we assist you with doctor’s appointments and in delivery room?

Most surrogates will fully anticipate and welcome your participation in the process, but raising the issue in a polite and respectful manner will set the right tone for when those intimate moments inevitably arise.

5. What kind of communication would you like to maintain after the birth?

Some surrogates and intended parents want to stay in close touch. It’s important to reiterate that your surrogate will have no legal rights to your child. Once your baby is born, you are well within your rights to cut off all 

contact with the surrogate and never see her again.

Once your child is old enough to understand how he or she came into the world, they’ll likely be curious about who their surrogate was, so it helps if you’ve kept up the relationship.

6. What are your concerns about us or this process?

You never know what your surrogate may be thinking or how you may come across to her. She might have a special request that’s very important to her or a fear she’s working to get over.

Let her know that her concerns are important to you, and in case she does have a vastly different idea of how the birth should go, it’s better to find out now rather than a trimester or two into the pregnancy.

Dr Neeraj Pahlajani

Why Did Thailand Ban Commercial Surrogacy?

After the abandonment of a surrogate-born baby Gammy with Down’s syndrome by an Australian couple and as a case of nine surrogate babies allegedly with the same Japanese father hogged the limelight, Thailand banned commercial surrogacy on August 6.

Unregulated surrogacy industry flourished in Thailand without any resistance for years before discovery of the nine babies under the care of nannies in Bangkok soon after an Australian couple abandoned their surrogate-born boy with Down’s syndrome, while taking home their healthy twin sisters. For years, Thailand was a go-get destination for infertile couples in the highly unregulated market.

According to the draft, the new law would prohibit commercial surrogacy and those violating the law will face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to 200,000 baht ($6,200). Agencies, advertisers or recruiters of surrogate mothers will face up to five years in jail and a fine of up to 100,000 baht ($3,100).

The move came after surrogate-born baby Gammy, who is being raised by his surrogate mother in eastern Thailand. The surrogate woman’s allegation that his Australian biological parents took home their healthy daughter and abandoned the blond, brown-eyed boy with Down syndrome and a congenital heart condition sparked outrage worldwide. (Source: www.theguardian.com)

Another equally important snag with surrogacy industry in Thailand is Gender Section IVF. Gender selection is illegal in India, but a growing number of women are finding a way round the ban by going to Thailand where there are no laws against it. Doctors use preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), a method that involves producing embryos through IVF and implanting only those of the desired gender into the womb.

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) enables the identification of genetic diseases in the embryo before pregnancy is established, and eliminates the need for possible pregnancy termination after prenatal diagnosis of a genetically affected fetus. Determining the sex of the embryo to avoid X-linked disorders remains a common indication for PGD, and the vast majority of such cases are carried out using fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH) with DNA probes derived from the X and Y chromosomes.

Couples from around the world flock to Thailand for cheap, reliable gender selection treatment. But while half of them from the UK, Australia, Europe and the US are looking to have girls to balance their families, Indian couples have only one motivation as they want male heirs. 

Thailand has 42 clinics and medical institutes and 240 doctors licensed to use assisted reproductive technology. After tightening laws on commercial surrogacy, the gender identification is the major stumbling block to control unregulated surrogacy sector.

Dr Neeraj Pahlajani 

10 Must Read Books for Surrogates and Intended Parents

1.  Surrogate Motherhood and the Politics of Reproduction by Susan Markens (NON FICTION)

The book is about the social construction of surrogacy in the United States and debates surrounding two bills on surrogacy in 1992, one in California and one in New York, and at the way the feminist lobby and other factors shaped two very different outcomes. In New York surrogacy was eventually outlawed, while in California it is leniently practiced.

2.  Surrogate Motherhood: International Perspectives by Shelley Day Sclater (NON FICTION)

This edited collection takes an interdisciplinary approach to the subject of surrogacy, including perspectives from law, psychology, anthropology and social work.

3.  Surrogacy Was the Way: Twenty Intended Mothers Tell Their Stories by Zara Griswold (NON FICTION)

It is a collection of surrogacy journeys of mothers. Women becoming surrogates should read this book as it will be helpful in contracting a surrogate and even to those interested in becoming a surrogate for the insider perspective it provides.

4.  The Baby Business: How Money, Science, and Politics Drive the Commerce of Conception by Debora L. Spar (NON FICTION)

This book gives the facts about commercial surrogacy and some interesting insights into the global market.

5.  Birthing a Mother: The Surrogate Body and the Pregnant Self by Elly Teman (NON FICTION)

Book narrates the personal experiences of surrogates and intended mothers. It breaks many common myths about surrogacy and about relationship between participants in gestational surrogacy arrangements.

6.  Surrogate Motherhood: Conception In The Heart (Institutional Structures of Feeling) by Helena Ragoné (NON FICTION)

The writer looks at traditional surrogates-- women who use their own egg and are inseminated with the intended father's sperm. The analysis sheds light on the way surrogacy changes established notions of kinship, family, and motherhood.

7. Due Date by Nancy W. Wood (FICTION)

Surrogate mother Shelby McDougall just fell for the biggest con of all—a scam that risks her life and the lives of her unborn twins.

Shelby McDougall, recent college graduate, is facing a mountain of student debt and carting a burden she'd like to exorcise. But Jackson and Diane have their own secret agenda, one that has nothing to do with diapers and lullabies.

8. Womb for Rent by Amanda Brian (FICTION)

It is two books in one.  It has stories of a wealthy business tycoon Derek Cameron and his own resident pet sitter Talli Paxton, and Jenna McBay, who owns a bookstore and wants to wed a man of means.

9. Her Sister's Baby by Janice Kay Johnson (FICTION)

Colleen will do anything for her sister Sheila, including having her baby. Sheila's husband, Michael, wants a baby, too. When Colleen offers to be a surrogate for his wife, he's deeply grateful.

10. And Baby Makes More: Known Donors, Queer Parents, and Our Unexpected Families by Susan Goldberg, Chloë Brushwood Rose (FICTION)

(Courtesy: www.goodreads.com)

Dr Neeraj Pahlajani

Life of Surrogates in India

India is emerging as a leader in international surrogacy. Indian surrogates are becoming increasingly popular with couples from all over the world because surrogacy in India is much simpler as well as less costly. Few particular reasons are low cost surrogacy assistance, detachment of Indian females from drug and alcohol activities. 

Also, Indian IVF Clinics are becoming more competitive in low cost surrogacy assistance and hiring of Indian females as surrogates. Gestational surrogacy is very popular choice of infertile couples from abroad. A number of couples fly to India to get a baby of their own genes.

In India surrogacy was legalized in 2002, considering that it would be helpful for those women who are naturally not in a position to become a mother. At the same time, this practice helps those families with lack of financial stability and those families which are having the problem of lack of peace due to absence of child. Women in India, generally, become surrogates with dual aim, to assist the infertile couple and also to assist her family and children. Such women dream to give proper education to their children.

However, even after 12 years since the surrogacy was legalized, surrogate mothers face certain levels of social stigma and ostracism. As a practice surrogacy involves the bodies of poor women, which in India’s socially conservative culture, is cause enough for derision.

Butthe point is what the ethical issues are as to commercial surrogacy. Many argue that surrogate arrangements depersonalize reproduction and create a separation of genetic, gestational, and social parenthood. Others argue that there is a change in motives for creating children. According to them children are not conceived for their own sakes, but for another’s benefit.

Surrogates in India are bound around certain limitations. Few of those are no woman may act as a surrogate more than thrice in her lifetime, she and her husband has had no extramarital relationship in the last six months to ensure that the person would not come up with symptoms of HIV infection during the period of surrogacy, no drug abuse, and not undergo blood transfusion excepting of blood obtained through a certified blood bank.

Thus, commercial surrogacy continues to be highly stigmatized in India. Surrogates are spending the term of their pregnancy in surrogate homes in India and try to keep it a secret because reproduction is regarded as acceptable only within marriage; taken outside the domestic sphere of family, childbearing for economic achievement may be seen as ‘dirty work,’ ‘baby-selling’ or ‘womb-renting.’

People should know that the right to reproduce is a fundamental human right and surrogacy helps to conquer both biological and social infertility. It provides medically infertile couples to have a child of their own. Legalization of gestational surrogacy aims to protect the surrogate’s interests as well as those of the intended parents and the baby born after the surrogacy.

Dr Neeraj Pahlajani 

IVF for Surrogacy and Egg Donation

For assisted reproduction purposes, egg donation typically involves the process of in vitro fertilization as the eggs are fertilized in the laboratory; more rarely, unfertilized eggs are frozen and stored for later use by the intended parents. Egg donation is part of the process of third party reproduction as part of ART (Assisted Reproductive Technology).

After egg donation, In vitro fertilization (IVF) is performed for gestational surrogacy. In the process, eggs are removed from an egg donor or from the intended mother and fertilized with sperm in a lab to create embryos. The resulting embryos are grown in laboratory conditions for 3-5 days. In a surrogacy arrangement, these embryos are then implanted into the uterus of a gestational surrogate. In an egg donation arrangement, they are transferred into the intended mother.

For the IVF procedure, surrogates and egg donors undergo medical treatments. An egg donor will be injected medications to stimulate the production of eggs. A surrogate takes medications to prepare her body for the embryo implantation.

Intended parents need to make a variety of choices in conjunction with the medical team at your IVF clinic. These decisions directly affect not only the success of the procedure, but also the number, health, and the biological makeup of the prospective children. The quality of the resulting embryos may affect the number that is recommended to be implanted. You may also have legal agreements in place that stipulate the number of embryos that can be transferred. You will also need to determine what to do with any remaining frozen embryos following the procedure.

The egg retrieval and IVF procedures are brief. Following the embryo transfer, your surrogate will require a period of bed rest. At any point in the process, you should feel free to reach out to your IVF clinic for any medical questions or to Circle with any questions about your contract, travel, or any other related issues.

Dr Neeraj Pahlajani

How to Communicate with Your Surrogate

For fostering a good relationship with a surrogate, communication needs to be strong. It can be through emails, phone calls, even video calling, but you need to be in regular touch with the surrogate. Communication would ease the tension and also help both surrogate and intended parents to understand each other’s concerns. For establishing a good communication, you need to be direct and allow each other to open up.

Intended parents should encourage weekly exchange of emails or texts to know about each other’s well being. Regardless of how often you and your surrogate talk during the pregnancy, it is suggested that intended parents should increase communication before the birth of child. It is recommended that during the surrogate’s pregnancy, talking and exchange of ideas should be ensured. It will help to safeguard everyone’s expectations.

What Should the Intended Parents Talk?

1. Ask about surrogate’s well being

2. Ask if she needs anything

3. Ask if she is willing to pump breast milk

4. Talk about your relationship with surrogate after birth of child

Staying connected after the baby is born is also an important part of the surrogacy journey. At Pahlajani Surrogacy Care, we ensure that intended parents and their surrogates develop strong ties. The friendship between the recipient mother and surrogate even continues after she delivers your baby. 

We encourage intended parents and surrogates to discuss about the baby to eliminate confusion and the potential for disappointment. Communication helps the surrogate to keep that strength and helps intended parents to know about the journey of their child inside surrogate’s womb. A lack of effective communication can often lead to misunderstandings, in turn leading to feelings of dishonesty or distrust. 

Maintaining open and steady communication between the agency and the intended parents enables each party to feel more comfortable and at ease 

during the process.

It is important for the intended parents to identify how involved they want to be during and after the pregnancy.  With that in mind, it is essential that the needs of the intended parents be matched with those of the surrogate.  Most couples prefer an open relationship with their surrogate

Dr Neeraj Pahlajani

Surrogacy - Laws and Rights

Employment Rights for Surrogate Parents

Legal landscape surrounding surrogacy in India is cultivated on child-protection perspective. It was the day in 2002 on which surrogacy was legalized in India, when legal authorities started striving to push the sector on legal tracks.

India is abode for thousands of surrogate mothers, who are bearing children for Indian as well as foreign childless couples. The sector has widened its horizon in years, adding new criterion to safeguard the rights of surrogate mothers in India, recipient couples and the children born through surrogacy.

In a stride to ensure rights to them, the Madras High Court held that a woman who had had a child through surrogacy was entitled to maternity leave on March 5, 2013.

It was when a mother, who had child through surrogacy with the consent of her husband, after her 20-year-old son was killed in a road accident in 2009.  She applied for maternity leave to look after the new born after the surrogate mother gave birth to a girl baby in February 2011.  She also applied to include the child under the family medical insurance scheme. However, her employer rejected the application, on the ground that there was no provision in the rules for granting leave to those who have a child through surrogacy. 

Later, the Judge, Justice K Chandru said, "Even in the case of adoption, the adoptive mother does not give birth to the child, but yet the necessity of bonding of the mother with the adoptive child has been recognized by the Central government, therefore, the petitioner is entitled for leave.”

"This court does not find anything immoral and unethical about the petitioner having obtained a child through surrogate arrangement," the Judge observed.

The mother was granted leave on the same terms applicable to those who had become parents via adoption. Also, the employers were ordered to add the child to the insurance scheme.    

Rights of Children Born Through Surrogacy in India

In surrogacy, the rights of child/children born are to be respected without discrimination of any kind including birth or other status.  While this provision was originally intended to protect illegitimate children, its inclusiveness suggests a generous and expansive application, including children born of surrogacy.

Under one of the seven guidelines issued by Ministry of Home Affairs, New Delhi pertaining to surrogacy in India, the foreign couple would require ‘exit’ permission before their return journey from India and would need to carry a certificate from concerned ART clinic regarding the fact that child/children have been duly taken custody by the foreign couple and the liabilities toward the India surrogate mother are fully discharged as per agreement. A copy of birth certificate(s) of surrogate child/children will be retained by Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FRRO)/Foreigners Registration Office (FRO) along with photocopies of the passport and VISA of the foreign parents.

Adoption of child under Indian Laws

Also, the intended parents can apply for adoption under the Guardian and Wards Act. As per the provisions the foreign citizens and NRIs are subject to the Guardian and Wards Act of 1890. Under this act, the adoptive parent is only the guardian of the child until she reaches 18 years of age. Foreign citizens and NRIs are supposed to formally adopt their child according to the adoption laws and procedures in the country of their residence. This must be carried out within two years of the individual becoming a child’s guardian.

But as per Indian Laws pertaining to adoption the parents can’t chose a specific child for adoption. Also the ICMR guidelines under Guideline 3.10.1 require the intended parents to adopt the child if through genetic fingerprinting they can’t establish the biological link between the child and the intended parents.

Dr Neeraj Pahlajani 

Does Bollywood, Set trends to boost IVF-Surrogacy Fertility Industry

Every time babies born through surrogacy are in news; After Aamir Khan, Bollywood megastar Shahrukh Khan is all set to become a father for the third time having through a baby via Surrogacy.  We thank to the Khans of Bollywood; the growing fertility industry is happy. It is time for the industry to attract more couples and medical tourists from Europe and America as well as local would be parents. Incongruously, it was his arch-rival Aamir Khan and his wife Kiran Rao who made headlines by declaring they were having a baby through in-vitro fertilisation or IVF which went a long way in making these topics mainstream and getting rid of the taboo attached to it.

"Surrogacy is slowly becoming a popular trend in India. Top quality equipment, favorable pricing and a hassle-free 'legal' process has made it ideal for couples who fail to conceive naturally," says Dr Neeraj Pahlajani, Senior IVF Consultant at Pahlajani Surrogacy India.

“The incidence of infertility is much more prevalent than what we would like to believe. Up to one in six couples have difficulties in conceiving and many seek medical advice and treatment. But bells of joy are ringing in the life of many such couples, thanks to increasing awareness about Assisted Reproductive Technologies. Procreation is the greatest, most amazing gift of nature. Whether or not one believes in rival theo­ries about origin of life, the arrival of a new-born is always a moment of pure joy. Great civilizations and great cre­ations are the result of the urge to leave the best for posterity. And posterity is what most humans are engaged in cre­ating.

Human reproduction is a complex sci­ence of union of chromosomes but it all begins with a union of two individ­uals of opposite sex with that specific purpose - procreation. Our huge pop­ulation might suggest otherwise but the fact remains that reproduction still remains one of the most serious prob­lems faced by our people. For those who are physically and physiologically normal, having a biological offspring of their own is just about as natural as any other activity but for those who face difficulty in having a child of their own, the disappointment and trauma are unimaginable.

But thanks to new, emerging tech­niques in human biology- particularly reproductive biology - it is now possi­ble for all those unhappy couples to get a little bundle of joy they can call their own child. Practices of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) have brought about a much-needed revolu­tion in human biology that has helped bring in happiness to hundreds of thousands of households around the world, but also helped the society get over the unfortunate stigma associ­ated with childlessness. The subject has been prohibited in the media and entertainment industry with the 2001 film Filhaal being the only serious attempt to focus attention on the issue. However, a string of recent events have not only brought the subject of assisted repro­duction out into the open for public discussion, but also revealed the ex­tent of the problem of infertility.

Infertility affects approximately 13-14% of reproductive-aged couples. It is defined as the inability to conceive after one year of properly timed, un­protected intercourse. This definition is based on the cumulative probability of pregnancy. If a woman in the reproductive age group and her partner have been trying to have a baby for at least one year with­out success, there are many tests, which can be done to find out the reasons why. If the cause of your infertility has not been investigated previously, the clinic will carry out the necessary tests. These tests may include an analysis of the man's semen and the conditions of the woman's uterus, fallopian tubes and cervical mucus.

While some patients will need only advice others may need drug therapy or surgery. But some may need counseling to go in for assisted re­productive techniques. The possible treatments of infertility include drug therapy; surgery to im­prove blocked or damages fallopian tubes; intra-uterine insemination using the husband's sperm; insemina­tion using donor sperm if the husband or partner has no sperm or very poor perm or risks passing on an inherited disease, in-vitro fertilization (IVF); egg donation with IVF; embryo donation and a few other techniques. An increasing number of women aged above 35 years, especially profession­als and upwardly mobile, are now re­ported to be opting for having children through IVF technique.

Experts suggest that late marriages, ca­reer priorities and finance are the key reasons for this trend. National Registry of Assisted Repro­duction in India, which main­tains records of all in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) procedures in India, reveal that the number of women seeking test-tube babies has more than doubled since 2005. Doctors say that nearly 60% of patients above 40 have difficulty in conceiving naturally. The delay in opting for preg­nancy can be attributed to various rea­sons such as late marriage, career priorities and financial security. And due to awareness of procedures like IVF, women in their late 30s wanting a baby are more open to approaching doctors.

In Raipur - Chhattisgarh, the Pahlajani Test Tube Baby Centre does 150-200 IVF procedures annually, of which more than 50% are for women over 35. Most of these women are in the middle class, upper middle class, and high society, includ­ing many career women trying to beat the biological clock.

In National and International Arena

Celebrity endorsement of ART may be a recent happening in India, but in the west, it has always been a subject that captured public imagination. A host of celebrities have admitted without hes­itation about their reasons for turning to surrogacy. Hollywood actress Jen­nifer Lopez is reported to have gone in for Assisted Reproductive Technology at the age of 38; Other Hollywood celebrities included Emma Thomp­son, Courtney Cox and Celine Dion. A recent example is that of Hollywood actress Elizabeth Banks has a ten-month-old son through surrogacy and combines work as an actress with her new role as a mother.

Back to Bollywood again, assisted reproduction has become much talked-about because of a series of developments. First it was the birth of a child to film director Farah Khan who had been very open about the IVF procedure she chose to have a child. "I wanted to have chil­dren at a particular time and I had to choose IVF for it," she has said on record.

In December 2011, actor Aamir Khan announced the birth of a baby boy through surrogacy. His wife Kiran had a serious problem because of which she had problems in child birth. She had been advised IVF with the help of a surrogate, and this led to the accomplishment of having a son for her and Aamir. In the letter that Aamir and wife Kiran released to the media they thanked mir­acles of science and read: "This baby is especially dear to us because he was born to us after a long wait and some difficulty." It added that because of some complications, "we were advised to have a baby through IVF-surrogacy, and we feel very grateful to the Almighty that all has gone well."

Hopefully, this will take away the stigma attached to IVF in general and surro­gacy in particular, and more and more couples aspiring for parenthood will us surrogates to help them complete their family. IVF specialists hope that more and more couples shed their fears and come forward to fulfill their hopes of parenthood. However, some experts point out that if surrogacy gains popularity then it may become more acceptable as a method of family building and many-other infertile couples will follow blindly therefore misusing or overus­ing this technique. Due to lack of a proper law on surrogacy, the process remains a grey area. Presently, guide­lines formulated by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in 2005 are used for surrogacy cases. The latest development to clear the air about ART was the film Vicky Donor. Sperm donation laws vary all over the world, for example a single woman in India is allowed ART but it is illegal in various countries, so interested couples might travel to India where it is legal. Films -in India and elsewhere - have always played a crucial role in spread­ing awareness about social issues and problems. Right since the days when to interpretation of previously unthinkable subjects, films and tel­evision have helped in forming of pub­lic opinions. Hopefully, ART will be more widely acceptable now.