2015 | Sama
This information pamphlet is aimed at enumerating some of the very important issues that are crucial in understanding what Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs) entail, ethical and legal issues around them and the context in which they are available in India. “ARTs” is an umbrella term that includes Intra Uterine Insemination (IUI), In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF), Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI), egg freezing, egg donation and surrogacy. ARTs are mostly available in the private healthcare sector, also catering to the “medical tourism” sector and thriving upon the bodily labour of many women who provide their bodily labour as egg donors or surrogates. The pamphlet also addresses the nature of ARTs which are marketed as “treatment” for infertility but actually only bypass infertility and do not offer a ‘cure’. These experimental technologies carry considerable health risks and are often administered to people without their informed consent. A contextualisation of ARTs and particularly the much-discussed practice of surrogacy, in this pamphlet, intends to shift the focus from moralistic undertones to emphasise upon reproductive autonomy and choices made in limited circumstances. The pamphlet foregrounds need for regulation that is fair from a gender and health rights perspective. It is available in two languages – English and Hindi.