What was the need to ban commercial surrogacy in India?
It might be surprising to know but the idea of banning surrogacy is bringing more harm to the world than doing any good. Commercial surrogacy has become the biggest alternative for several women to earn a handsome amount of money. She uses this money for her family's basic survival needs like a child's education, groceries, paying monthly bills, EMI's, etc. Snatching this thing from her is like snatching a part of her life completely.
Surrogacy has become a major source of income because most of the intended parents are from foreign countries. The ART - assisted reproductive technology in India like surrogacy, and IVF - in-vitro fertilization is highly cheap and affordable. So, these Indian surrogate mothers hold a bigger chance to earn in outside currencies. The outsiders choose India for surrogacy because our nation's currency is much lower than theirs, so it's cheaper for them. The article below is going to blow your mind with the necessary information on the reasons for banning surrogacy in India.
What is commercial surrogacy?
All across the world, Commercial surrogacy is a long procedure of carrying somebody else's child on her belly for 9 months of the pregnancy period. Furthermore, after the birth of the child, she hands it over to the intended parents and takes a good amount of pre-decided commission for the entire process. The starting and ending of the complete surrogacy are done based on the legal documented consideration. This legal procedure clearly states the intentions of both the parties, responsibilities, and repercussions of not following it. Commercial surrogacy is a method where the surrogate mother gets compensation for everything including medical expenses. This process is completely different from altruistic surgery where a woman does everything voluntarily and carries a baby inside her belly without expecting any compensation or other benefits in return.
According to one of the studies of surrogacy held in Gujarat state, few conclusions came in front. In this state, a woman who carries the surrogacy child has an earning of around 1,50,000 to 6,00,000 INR per month. Moreover, these women in reality have a monthly earning of not more than 1000 to 3000. Henceforth, for these women earning this amount by being a surrogate mother once could be a life-changing thing. They can completely change their lifestyle, stay in good apartments and provide good education to their children.
What was the necessity to prohibit commercial surrogacy in India?
Prohibiting commercial surrogacy in India was a big-time decision that massively affected the commercial owners, surrogate women, and even the intended parents looking out for help. But, with all the plus points and results, there comes the dark side to it, henceforth the same happened for the surrogacy implementation. The following reasons state why this big step of banning surrogacy completely from India was taken up by the higher officials.
Fluctuating & unfixed compensation: The monetary compensation and earnings for the surrogate mother is generally not a fixed amount. It varies based upon the clinic's availability, location and it's market brand value. For example, if a surrogate mother has associated with a surrogacy clinic having a very bad market recognition that offers no trustworthiness, then the surrogate mother's compensation will be at risk and will be very low. In various real-time cases, people have witnessed that the intended parents are giving approx 12 lakhs to the clinic and further the clinic is giving only 40,000 to the surrogate mother.
High class & Low-class issue: The majority of the intended parents belonged to the higher income society that took the surrogacy. This gave birth to a few arguments that if the surrogate having the low income is dealing with the wealthier intended parents, then a power struggle could take place.
Insurance isn't covered: The insurance for these surrogate mothers is not covered under the legal contracts. Apart from this, the legal agreement doesn't cover anything related to her postpartum needs and emergency requirements. She is left with her responsibility of giving birth to the baby in the specified compensation with no guarantee of her life in it. Such carelessness takes place due to a lack of safety and regulation in these legal agreements.
Are there any side effects of banning surrogacy?
Surrogacy banning has led to multiple side effects and turmoil over the life of these surrogate women. The effect of the banning of commercial surrogacy has been very bad. It has been neglecting these women's basic needs and matters linked with their livelihood. There are lakhs of women from good backgrounds who voluntarily want to take up the surrogacy job as their full-time career. Banning this has led to immense pressure on these women as their career and monetary downfall. Moreover, the intended parents are finding it difficult to give birth to their child all by themselves and due to this, these parents are finding it difficult to cope with the prevailing situation. The woman who is least interested to undergo the entire motherhood process is not forcefully going through it. On the contrary, the woman who is willing to take up this job of carrying the baby in her womb for good compensation in return is now finding it difficult to pursue the same due to the banning of surrogacy.
Key Takeaways
Our entire world, especially India, is going to take more years to fully accept surrogacy. People across different nations fail to understand that surrogate mothers are doing this work out of their free will to earn their livelihoods. This is their only means left to move forward in this judgemental society for uplifting their self-esteem. Just with 100% thought that all the surrogate mothers are being warned in this segment, we are bringing down their will to live independently. Banning is just not an option to come up with a solution. So, ideally, the government should come up with the necessary measures for treating and rectifying the prevailing ill practices.
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