The Surrogacy Debate In India

"The parents construct the child biologically, while the child constructs the parents socially."

                                                    Law Commission of India, Report No. 228, August 2009

Surrogacy, understood universally, as also defined in the Indian National Guidelines for regulation of IVF clinics ("National Guidelines"), means:

          "an arrangement in which a woman agrees to carry a pregnancy that is genetically   unrelated to her and her husband, with the intention to carry it to term and hand over the child to the genetic parents for whom she is acting as a surrogate".

India enjoyed an ubiquitous reputation of being the surrogacy hub of the world, until last year when non-Indians were banned from undergoing surrogacy in India. India was (and is) well suited to be a surrogacy hub in keeping with its population, a steady presence of qualified doctors and experts, good clinics/hospitals and willing surrogates in abundance for