India to ban booming surrogacy service to foreigners

India's government said Wednesday it plans to ban surrogate services for foreigners wanting babies, a move likely to hit hard the booming and lucrative industry.

"The government does not support commercial surrogacy," it said in an affidavit to the Supreme Court, which is hearing a petition regarding the industry.

"No foreigners can avail surrogacy services in India," it said, adding that surrogacy would be available "only for Indian couples".

Thousands of infertile couples, many from overseas, hire the wombs of local women to carry their embryos through to birth. 

But debate has been growing over whether the unregulated business exploits poor women, prompting a petition to the top court for action. 

The court earlier this month ordered the government to spell out measures for regulating the industry after expressing concern, while hearing the petition which seeks a halt to the importation of human embryos for commercial purposes.

India, with cheap technology, skilled doctors and a steady supply of local surrogates, is one of relatively few countries where women can be paid to carry another's child through to birth.

The process usually involves in-vitro fertilisation and embryo transfer, leading to a rise in fertility centres offering such services.

The government, in its affidavit presented to the court in Delhi by Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, said it would "require some time to bring the law in place".

"The government will prohibit and penalise commercial surrogacy services," it said. 

The government has been consulting women's groups and the health industry on a draft bill, the Assisted Reproductive Technology, that seeks to regulate the industry.

Clinic owners denied ill-treatment of surrogate mothers, saying it is in their interests to treat the women well so they produce healthy babies.

Dr Nayana Patel, one of India's leading fertility specialists, said the move discriminated against foreigners who were also desperate to have children. 

"Yes, there need to be strict checks and counter checks but banning foreigners is not the answer. It's inhuman," Patel told.

"There is no exploitation, it's a voluntary contract between human beings involving an exchange of money. What's wrong with that?"

"It's a dignified earning. Instead of women working as maids, they can be surrogates," said Patel, who runs the Akanksha fertility clinic in the western state of Gujarat.

The latest move comes after India issued new rules in 2012 barring foreign gay couples and single people from using surrogate mothers to become parents, drawing sharp criticism from gay rights advocates and fertility clinics.

The existing rules say foreign couples seeking to enter into a surrogacy arrangement in India must be a "man and woman (who) are duly married and the marriage should be sustained at least two years".

The cost of surrogacy in India generally ranges from about $18,000 to $30,000, of which around $8,000 goes to the surrogate mother. The figure is roughly a third of the US price.

Pic Courtesy : Ramchand Memorial