mid-day editorial: Everyone has the right to have kids

Adraft law that aims to make surrogacy legal and transparent was cleared by the Cabinet yesterday. The Surrogacy Bill, 2016, has been drafted with the aim to protect the rights of both, the surrogate and the child

Adraft law that aims to make surrogacy legal and transparent was cleared by the Cabinet yesterday. The Surrogacy Bill, 2016, has been drafted with the aim to protect the rights of both, the surrogate and the child. The government will take up the Bill at the Winter Session.

It proposes to ban commercial surrogacy and clarifies that only Indian couples with proven infertility can take the help of surrogate mothers. It makes it illegal for foreign nationals to seek surrogate mothers here.

While making things legal and transparent should always be the aim, there are inherent problems with the stand the Bill takes.

Why debar foreigners from seeking help from Indian surrogates? Perhaps, what’s required is better regulation, stricter rules that can curb ‘surrogate tourism leading to exploitation, rather than imposing a blanket ban.

The concept of ‘altruistic surrogacy’ for childless couples who have been married for at least five years, is worrisome because it comes with a rider that the surrogate mother should be a ‘close relative’ of the couple; should be married and have borne a child of her own. Why should a single woman not have the option of being a surrogate? How are we to make a claim to equal gender rights with regressive legislation?

Most worrying though, are reports that quote External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj as saying that couples with children are opting for surrogacy “just because it is fashionable”. One thinks the Minister is making a dig at Bollywood, although she doesn’t spell it out.

Other strange statements have followed but it is evident that the Draft Bill is totally out of sync with the times. Maybe, a more diverse representation on the draft committee, including the presence of medical professionals, would have helped.

But going by the Minister’s answer to a question — “we do not recognise homosexuality” and it is “against our ethos”, it is evident that diversity in all its forms seems be to against “our ethos” too.

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