The Baby Makers: Critics Push for Regulation of India's Booming Surrogacy Industry
By ABC,
ABC
| 04. 15. 2014
As more than 800 million Indians go to the polls this month, the main political party candidates are being urged to finally push through legislation to regulate the country's booming commercial surrogacy industry.
The calls come as increasing numbers of foreigners, including many Australians, pay thousands of dollars to Indian surrogacy centres to fulfil their need to have children.
The industry has been criticised for operating in a regulatory vacuum, and while there are some rules for people who take the journey to India, it is still a minefield for many unsuspecting parents.
Author and critic Kishwar Desai has strong reservations about the lack of legal oversight and what it means for the women who rent out their wombs.
"We're treating these women like animals, like you would do with cattle ... so I think that is something we need to be very careful about," she said.
"It's not the numbers of the women who die - and indeed we may not even know about them because a lot of the clinics are operating without any regulation, without any rules...
Related Articles
By Annika Inampudi, Science | 08.01.2025
In June, Sara* received a message asking whether she wanted to continue to participate in a massive, multicenter research project led by scientists at Aarhus University in Denmark. The iPsych study, the message said, had sequenced her genetic data from...
The Center for Genetics and Society is delighted to recommend the current edition of GMWatch Review – Number 589. UK-based GMWatch, a long-standing ally, was founded in 1998 by Jonathan Matthews as an independent organization seeking to counter the enormous corporate political power and propaganda of the GMO industry and its supporters. Matthews and Claire Robinson are its directors and managing editors.
CGS works to ensure that social justice, equity, human rights, and democratic governance are front...
By Harry Hunter, PET BioNews | 08.11.2025
The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology has announced plans to publish a POSTnote and called for submissions on surrogacy law in the UK and internationally.
The current UK surrogacy laws, largely based on legislation from the 1980s, have been...
By Molly Gray, Nuffield Council on Bioethics | 08.13.2025
Human embryo at about 8 weeks
by Anatomist90, CC3.0
With debate growing around whether the “14-day rule” on human embryo research remains fit for purpose, the need for inclusive public dialogue is more important than ever. Decisions about whether...
