The Lok Sabha passed the Bill to prohibit commercial surrogacy where it allows “altruistic surrogacy” and does not include monetary compensation to the surrogate mother apart from medical expenses and insurance coverage during the pregnancy.

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After a reply from Health and Family Welfare Minister Harsh Vardhan the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019, was passed.

The Bill provides “ethical surrogacy” to the needy infertile Indian couples and prohibits exploitation of surrogate mothers and children born through surrogacy.

The Bill allows surrogacy for only those couples who suffer from proven infertility and states that they should have a ‘certificate of essentiality’ and a ‘certificate of eligibility’ issued by the appropriate authorities. The Bill provides, unless the couples are registered by the appropriate authority, the surrogacy clinics cannot undertake surrogacy related procedures.

Undertaking or advertising commercial surrogacy, exploiting the surrogate mother, abandoning, exploiting or disowning a surrogate child and selling or importing human embryo or gametes for surrogacy, will be counted as offenses under the Bill.

The Bill was passed by the previous Lok Sabha in December 2018 but lapsed with its dissolution. So, on Monday Lok Sabha passed the Bill to prohibit commercial surrogacy.

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