Donor Deaths in India Highlight Surrogacy Perils

When Yuma Sherpa told doctors at a private fertility clinic here that she wanted to back out, her husband's lawyer says they encouraged her to keep going.

Sherpa was assured the pain of the injections to make her super-ovulate, or produce far more than the usual one egg during her menstrual cycle, would end once her eggs were harvested. But when the 26-year-old shop assistant died after the surgery in January, her husband filed a complaint with the Delhi Medical Council charging medical negligence.

"The tragic death of the young woman in the prime of her life is shocking," Sudha Sundararaman, vice president of the All India Democratic Women's Association, told Women's eNews in a phone interview. "While there are laws in the country to prevent the sale of blood, there are no binding guidelines for such procedures related to assisted reproductive technology. With no monitoring of their impact on the health of women, most clinics just do as they please."

Sundararaman's Delhi-based association is one of several women's groups seeking a criminal investigation into Sherpa's case and...