Centre against commercial surrogacy

New Delhi:The Centre on Wednesday made it clear to the Supreme Court that commercial surrogacy of parents hiring a mother in India to get a surrogate child will not be allowed.

In an affidavit filed in a petition relating to determination of citizenship of a surrogate child born to a foreign couple, the Centre also said the scope of surrogacy will be limited to Indian married fertile couples only and not to foreign couples who want a surrogate child by entering into commercial contract with a surrogate mother.

During resumed hearing a bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and N.V. Ramana granted further time till November 24 to the Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar to file another affidavit giving the status of the response received from States.

(Surrogate mother’ is the mother who gestates and gives birth to a baby for commissioning parents with the intention of surrendering all her parental rights over the newly born baby and handing it over to the commissioning parents for monetary consideration. When this transaction is entered into an agreement it becomes a ‘commercial surrogacy agreement’.)

The Centre said the Assisted Reproductive Techniques (regulation) Bill to regulate commercial surrogacy along with model guidelines has been sent to various States. The comments received will be formulated while framing the law.

On the Union government’s notification  permitting import of human embryo, the Centre said a fresh notification has been issued on October 16 that import of embryo will not be allowed for commercial surrogacy.

The Centre said that the issues of parentage in surrogacy agreements will be settled in the draft law in consultation with the various ministries.