Dhananjay Mahapatra | TNN | New Delhi | 16 December 2009
The Supreme Court’s worst apprehension appears to have come true. The surrogate twin babies of a German couple have virtually become “stateless citizens” with India refusing them citizenship and Germany not ready to recognise surrogacy as a means of parenthood.
Finding the surrogate babies caught in no man’s territory on legal grounds for no fault of theirs, a Bench comprising Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly vented its anguish, “Should we treat children born out of surrogacy as commodities?”
This slashing remark came after the couple — Jan Balaz and Susan Lohle — could give no final word to the SC whether the twins could get German citizenship in the event that India did not agree to grant citizenship to them.