SURROGACY IN INDIA
Legal status of surrogacy in India is expressed by The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016
Highlights of the Bill,
- To allow altruistic ethical surrogacy to intending infertile couple between the age of 23-50 years and 26-55 years for female and male respectively
- Surrogacy is an arrangement whereby an intending couple commissions a surrogate mother to carry their child.
- The intending couple must be Indian citizens and married for at least five years with at least one of them being infertile. The surrogate mother has to be a close relative who has been married and has had a child of her own.
- No payment other than reasonable medical expenses can be made to the surrogate mother. The surrogate child will be deemed to be the biological child of the intending couple.
- Central and state governments will appoint appropriate authorities to grant eligibility certificates to the intending couple and the surrogate mother. These authorities will also regulate surrogacy clinics.
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Undertaking surrogacy for a fee, advertising it or exploiting the surrogate mother will be punishable with imprisonment for 10 years and a fine of up to Rs 10 lakh.