Indian
Laws proposed to be framed for
egg donation & Surrogacy
Law
firms and semen banks will
be encouraged to obtain (for
example, through appropriate
advertisement) and maintain
information on possible oocyte
donors and surrogate mothers
as per details mentioned elsewhere
in this document. The above
organizations may appropriately
charge the couple for providing
an oocyte or a surrogate mother.
The oocyte donor may be compensated
suitably (e.g financially)
by the law firm or semen bank
when the oocyte is donated.
However, negotiations between
a couple and the surrogate
mother must be conducted independently
between them.
Oocyte
Sharing
The
system of oocyte sharing in
which an indigent infertile
couple that needs to raise
resources for ART agrees to
donate oocytes to an affluent
infertile couple wherein the
wife can carry a pregnancy
through but cannot produce
her own oocyte, for in-vitro
fertilization with the sperm
of the male partner of the
affluent couple, for a monitory
compensation that would take
care of the expenses of an
ART procedure on the indigent
couple, must be encouraged.
Surrogacy:
General Considerations
1.
A child born through surrogacy
must be adopted by the genetic
(biological) parents unless
they can establish through genetic
(DNA) fingerprinting (of which
the records will be maintained
in the clinic) that the child
is theirs.
Surrogacy by assisted conception
should normally be considered
only for patients for whom it
would be physically or medically
impossible / undesirable to
carry a baby to term.
2.
Payments to surrogate mothers
should cover all genuine expenses
associated with the pregnancy.
Documentary evidence of the
financial arrangement for surrogacy
must be available. The ART centre
should not be involved in this
monetary aspect.
3.
Advertisements regarding surrogacy
should not be made by the ART
clinic. The responsibility of
finding a surrogate mother,
through advertisement or otherwise,
should rest with the couple
or a semen bank.
4.
A surrogate mother should not
be over 45 years of age. Before
accepting a woman as a possible
surrogate for a particular couple’s
child, the ART clinic must ensure
(and put on record) that the
woman satisfies all the testable
criteria to go through a successful
full-term pregnancy.
5.
A relative, a known person,
as well as a person unknown
to the couple may act as a surrogate
mother for the couple. In the
case of a relative acting as
a surrogate, the relative should
belong to the same generation
as the women desiring the surrogate.
6.
A prospective surrogate must
be tested for HIV and shown
to seronegative for this virus
just before embryo transfer
embryo transfer. She must also
provide a written certificate
that (a) she has not had a drug
intravenously administered into
her through a shared syringe.
(b) She has not undergone blood
transfusion; and (c) She and
her husband (to be best of her/his
knowledge) has had no extramarital
relationship in the last six
months. (This is to ensure that
the person would not come up
with symptoms of HIV infection
during the period of surrogacy).
The prospective surrogate mother
must also declare that she will
not use drugs intravenously,
and not undergo blood transfusion
excepting of blood obtained
through a certified blood bank.
No woman may act as a surrogate
more then thrice in her life
time.
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