Critical Analysis Of Surrogacy Regulation Under Indian Legal System With Special Reference To Socio Legal Aspects Concerning Commercial Surrogacy In India

Abstract

Though motherhood completes a woman but it is not possible for every woman to embrace motherhood naturally. Infertility is a health problem faced by people across the world since time immemorial. With advancement of science and technology came the solutions for infertility and specially with development of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) technology came the solution to have one s own child. With IVF came in the concept of surrogacy, which finds a mention even in Bible and in Hindu Puranas. Due to low cost, less legislative control and easy availability of surrogates, India became a hub for international surrogacy. As each side has two coins the boom in surrogacy came in with its own negative consequences and apprehensions of exploitation of the poor surrogates and moral arguments against renting of womb. The Indian Legislature passed the new Surrogacy (Regulation) Act 2021, whereby India recently banned commercial surrogacy. Through the present thesis, the researcher aims to throw light on validity of surrogacy contracts in India. The current Bill was drafted banning commercial surrogacy because it was assumed that the consent of the surrogate was not informed consent and it was given due to economic duress. The researcher aims to study whether the surrogate have given informed consent through field research by interviewing the surrogate as to how much information they have about the contract they have signed. newlineThe current thesis has been divided into eight chapters wherein the researcher has analysed in detail the legal framework at the national and international level prior to the current Surrogacy (Regulation) Act 2021. At the national level we have the 228th report of the Law Commission and the Indian Council of Medical research guidelines 2005 which dealt with surrogacy in India. these guidelines though were non-binding in nature, contained detailed provisions dealing with surrogacy and were followed by medical professionals. At the international level the United Nations has not passed any direct convention rel