Womb for sale debate surfaces in Nepal

Almost nine years after India's Supreme Court gave the legal nod to commercial surrogacy, the issue has finally surfaced in Nepal after a disgruntled wife went to court to prevent her husband from bequeathing his property to his daughter by a surrogate mother.

Sambhavi Rana, who comes from an upper class family in Kathmandu, and her mother-in-law Vidya Rana, went to Supreme Court to stop the former's husband, Ujjwal Rana, from bequeathing the couple's property to his three-year-old daughter Bina. Bina had been conceived by a commercial surrogate mother, Ayushma Nagarkoti, with whom Rana had signed a formal contract, undertaking to pay maintenance and medical costs for her for two years and the woman had agreed to hand over the child when she was two.

Though Rana had also notified the chief district officer, saying his wife, who was incapable of giving birth, had agreed to the contract, the wife challenged it in court, saying she was kept in the dark. She also challenged his claim that she could not conceive, accusing him of mental and other forms of cruelty...