Foreigners can’t rent womb in India: Centre tells SC

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New Delhi, Oct 28: Foreigners cannot rent a womb in India, the government told the Supreme Court Wednesday.
Surrogacy services would only be available for Indian couples, it said in an affidavit filed before the apex court. “The government does not support commercial surrogacy…No foreigner can avail surrogacy services in India,” the affidavit said, adding that surrogacy would be available “only for Indian couples”.
The government told the court that it has decided to prohibit the import of human embryo for the purpose of commercial surrogacy for foreigners.
Recently, the directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT) decided to withdraw its 2013 notification allowing free import of human embryo to India for artificial reproduction. Import of embryos for research would, however, not be banned, the Centre clarified.
Meanwhile, the court expressed dismay over a news report containing details of the Centre’s probable reply to be filed before it, which said that it would not allow couples from foreign countries to have children through surrogate mothers here.
A bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi took exception to the fact that the government’s stand on commercial surrogacy was published in an English newspaper before being filed in the apex court.
Earlier, the court had expressed concerns over “trading of human embryo” and directed the government to re-examine the policy to allow import of human embryo while asking it to bring commercial surrogacy within the ambit of law.
“You (government) are allowing trading of human embryo,” the court had observed, saying commercial surrogacy should not be allowed but was still going on unabated as ‘business’ in the country without any legal sanctity.
In 2013, the Centre issued a notification allowing import of human embryos for artificial reproduction paving the way for foreign couples to bring in frozen human embryos and rent a surrogate womb in India.
The court was hearing a PIL filed by advocate Jayashree Wad who said the country has virtually become a “baby factory” as a large number of foreign couples have been coming to India in search of surrogate mothers. PTI