Thursday, August 07, 2008

Baby born to surrogate Indian mother in legal limbo - Yahoo! News

Baby born to surrogate Indian mother in legal limbo - Yahoo! News: "The future of a 12-day-old baby girl born to an Indian surrogate mother hung in legal limbo Wednesday after the Japanese couple who planned to take her home divorced. Manji Yamada was born last month after eggs from an Indian donor were fertilised using the Japanese man's sperm and implanted in the womb of the surrogate Indian mother.

Her biological father split from his wife after the fertilisation process, and his former spouse no longer wants the baby. In the absence of a surrogacy law in India, the child -- who is an Indian citizen -- will have to be adopted by her Japanese father Ikufumi Yamada, 45.

But Indian law does not allow the adoption of a girl by a single father, lawyers and doctors said."

This is a real-life example of one of my worst fears coming true.

How can any one adopt a baby without going through an adoption agency process, which can take 2-3 years ?

With the increasing numbers of infertile couples coming to India for surrogacy treatment, this problem is likely to escalate, because birth certificates to these babies are being issued illegally and fraudulently. Infertility clinics are taking advantage of the desperation of these couples and using the garb of " ICMR guidelines" to issue false birth certificates.

Hopefully , the passage of a law to regulate surrogacy will improve matters, provided the law is drafted well. I have made some suggestions in an earlier post, as to how this can be done in a way which protects everyone - the infertile couple; the doctor; and the surrogate.

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