Mumbai: While ministers and health officials posted positive tweets about the surrogacy bill on Wednesday, the medical fraternity wasn’t too happy.
Some doctors found it insensitive for keeping surrogacy out of the reach of today’s modern family structure (read single persons and same-sex couples), others found it undemocratic for keeping the medical fraternity out of the draft bill process.
Medical ethicist Dr Anant Bhan said, “I am totally in support of better regulation, but the blanket statement that only people from the immediate family can be surrogates or people who are not unmarried or are ‘homosexual’ cannot, suggests that we are making a value judgement. This seems unacceptable in today’s age.” He also felt that the clause in the draft bill that allows people with a special needs child to opt for surrogacy was negative because it suggested that they “have some lower value of living”.
Infertility specialists Dr Nayna Patel and Dr Aniruddha Malpani said the regulation was welcome in that there was none so far. However, she said that the bill “virtually spelt death to surrogacy because it will take away a lot from couples who are infertile, it will be bad for women who benefitted from surrogacy and even the nation which will miss out on medical tourism.” Dr Malpani, an infertility specialist from Colaba in Mumbai, said that while surrogacy had been overused and misused far too often, the new bill had ignored the years of debate over the pros and cons of commercial surrogacy.
Dr Narendra Malhotra, Delhi-based president of the ISAR (Indian Society for Assisted Reproduction) said, “It is unfortunate to virtually ban the only way some infertile couple can become parents.
(Sourced from agencies, feature image courtesy:oneindia.com)
