Imrana Qadeer, Mary E. John | Economic and Political Weekly | Vol. 44, No. 2 (Jan. 10 – 16, 2009), pp. 10-12
The Draft Assisted Reproductive Technology Regulation Bill and Rules (2008) intends to regulate an “industry” in India that has been expanding by leaps and bounds, mainly on account of a growing demand by foreign couples in search of relatively cheap surrogacy arrangements. This commentary argues that there has been next to no public debate on the ethical, social and medical questions around infertility and surrogacy in our context, and makes a beginning in this direction. Thanks to pressure from women’s groups the draft has now been placed on the web site of the Indian Council of Medical Research for comments.