Is surrogacy legal in India

There are many articles which describe how India is becoming the "surrogacy capital " of the world. This is why we get requests from many couples for surrogacy treatment. This is technically easy treatment for an IVF clinic to offer - and is extremely profitable as well ! So why don't we offer it in our clinic ?

The reason is simple- because we think it's not legal.

Let me explain.

Doing surrogacy is perfectly legal. Since surrogacy is not prohibited by law, any IVF clinic can offer this legally. The problem arises only after the surrogate gives birth. Today, Indian law only recognises a birth mother. This means, the name on the child's birth certificate has to be that of the birth mother ( the gestational surrogate); and her husband, no matter whose eggs or sperm are being used to make the baby.

What clinics are doing today is illegally putting a false name on the birth certificate - the name of the genetic ( intended parents). While this is understandable, the fact still remains that the name if being fudged illegally - and this can create problems if disputes arise.

Many infertile couples are desperate enough to ignore the risk . Many IVF clinics openly advertise that they offer commercial surrogacy in India by claiming to follow " ICMR guldelines" - which have no legal sanctity whatsover ! In addition, many journalists have written about surrogate success stories, so that couples still do not realise the risk they are running.

What I find surprising is that no journalist has bothered to investigate how these clinics manage to put the intended parents name on the child'r birth certificate, so that they can take their baby back with them after birth ? Is the Municipal Corporation health officer ( the legal authority which issues the birth certificate) being hoodwinked ? Or are they being managed ?

I'd love to know , so we can start offering surrogacy services ourselves to couples who ask us to do so !