Hyderabad: The High Court ruling that the decision to hand over surrogate children to the commissioning parents would rest with the state government has left some surrogate mothers happy.
Ms Lavanya Singh (name changed), said, “With set rules and regulations, surrogacy would be a boon to mothers and commissioning parents. The court's decision to involve the government will lead to faster results and pending payments of many surrogate mothers will be released.”
Telangana health officials said that with each hearing, the court had brought about improvements in the way surrogacy is handled. The authorities plan to demand better facilities for surrogate mothers at the clinics that house them.
“It is good to keep a check on the commissioning parents too but I hope that decisions are taken quickly as a surrogate mother’s role ends with the delivery. They cannot get more attached with the baby,” said Ms Lavayna Singh
Health officials want stricter rules for surrogacy following a recent case where a surrogate mother claimed that the commissioning parents had refused to take the child after learning that it was a girl. The commissioning parents, said to be from AP, are yet to be traced.
District medical officer Padmaja said, “We are still suspicious about the case. The surrogate mother has changed her name along with that of her husband. They could have done so because they wanted to keep the fact that she was a surrogate mother as a secret. As the baby was delivered in a government hospital, there was no question of payment,”
She stated that hospitals which allow gender detection in surrogate cases would be punished severely.
“Intervention of government authorities will help in stricter regulations. A lot of factors such as payment and comfort of the mother is involved in surrogacy,” she added.
