Thirty-year-old Preet Inder Singh was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma on June 22, 2020. Five days later, before starting chemotherapy, he had given his semen sample for cryopreservation — doctors had said chemotherapy may affect his fertility. Coming to the aid of the parents of a young cancer patient who, months before his death, had sought cryopreservation of his semen sample, the Delhi High Court ruled Friday that they are entitled to the release of their son’s sperm, and there is “no prohibition against posthumous reproduction” in the absence of a spouse if the consent of a sperm or an egg donor is established. In her order, Justice Prathiba Singh relied on the Hindu Succession Act to rule that parents are entitled to the release of their son’s sperm as they are “Class-1 legal heirs of the deceased”. Read More

While hearing the pleas challenging certain surrogacy laws, the Supreme Court today emphasized the need to safeguard the interests of surrogate mothers, even though commercial surrogacy is prohibited in India. A bench comprising Justices BV Nagarathna and N Kotiswar Singh was hearing a batch of petitions pertaining to the Surrogacy Regulation Act and the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021, when it observed that there is a need for a “system”, so that no woman is exploited. Also Read – Haldwani Evictions | Supreme Court Gives 2 Months To Uttarakhand To Come Up With Rehabilitation Scheme For Persons To Be Evicted“There can be a database, so that the same lady is not exploited. A system must be there. Nobody is saying it’s a bad idea, but at the same time, it can be badly used”, orally said Justice Nagarathna. On the aspect of compensation, the judge added that the Court[…]

Couples struggling with the natural conception of a baby consider other methods. Among the fertility procedures that ensure positive pregnancy is surrogacy. This refers to bearing someone else’s child. Usually, the male and female gametes come from the couple to be implanted and kept in the gestational carrier’s body. After 9 months of development, the fetus is born by a surrogate mother as well as given back to her biological parents. The surrogacy process in India is pretty straightforward, making it a preferred option for most families. The rules that are governed by the Surrogacy Regulation Bill of 2019: Before adopting surrogacy, the couples should thoroughly understand the major aspects of this bill, which are as follows. Read More

During the hearing before the Supreme Court in the batch of petitions challenging various provisions of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021 and the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021, the Central Government has suggested eleven issues, on which parties could file written submissions before the final hearing of the matters. During the hearing today, the Court asked the parties whether there is a link between both the statutes and, therefore, whether challenges to provisions of both statutes should be decided together. It was the submission of the Centre that challenges to provisions of both statutes should be considered one after the other and not together. The Court found that in some cases, provisions of both statutes have been challenged in the same petition. Read More

The Calcutta High Court has recently held that in cases of in-vitrio fertilisation (IVF), it is not mandatory that either the sperm or the oocyte must come from the couple seeking IVF themselves.A single bench of Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharya perused the rules under the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021 (Act) and allowed a plea by a husband who along with his wife Read More

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday sought a response from the Centre on a plea against a provision of the surrogacy law which bars married couples from having a second child through surrogacy if they have a healthy first child. A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Augustine George Masih issued notice to the Union of India on a plea filed by a couple challenging the constitutional validity of section 4(iii)(c)(ii) of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021. Section 4 (iii)(C)(ii) of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021 stipulates couples who desire to have a child through surrogacy to secure an eligibility certificate stating that they do not have any surviving child (biologically or through adoption or surrogacy). Read More

Single men, women, same sex and even straight couples are opting for commercial surrogacy in the US, Canada, East European and Latin American countries.Eight years ago, a same-sex couple in Delhi had a daughter through surrogacy. But when they chose to have another child this year, hoping to complete the picture of an ideal family, the law had changed. They realised that they could not hire a local surrogate as before and had to find one from within their circle of family and friends. What’s more, the surrogate couldn’t be paid for her services.“Nobody, no matter how close, would agree to volunteerism of this magnitude. So we decided to find a surrogate in the US through a foreign agency,” the couple says Read More

New Delhi, Feb 23, 2024: The Supreme Court has protected the right of parenthood of a woman, suffering from a rare medical condition, by staying the operation of a law which threatened to wreck her hopes to become a mother through surrogacy. The woman, known only as ‘Mrs. ABC’ for anonymity sake, has the Mayer Rokitansky Kuster Hauser (MRKH) syndrome. Medical board records showed she has “absent ovaries and absent uterus, hence she cannot produce her own eggs/oocytes”. The couple had begun the process of gestational surrogacy, through a donor, on December 7 last year. However, a government notification on March 14 this year amended the law, banning the use of donor gametes. It said “intending couples” must use their own gametes for surrogacy. The petition was filed in the Supreme Court challenging the amendment as a violation of a woman’s right to parenthood. “The amendment which is now coming in[…]

(i) couple undergoing surrogacy must have both gamete from the intending couple. However, in case when the District Medical Board certifies that either husband or wife constituting the intending couple suffers from medical condition necessitating use of donor gamete then surrogacy using donor gamete is allowed subject to the condition that the child to be born through surrogacy must have atleast one gamete from the intending couple; (ii) single woman (widow or divorcee) undergoing surrogacy must use self eggs and donor sperms to avail surrogacy procedure. Read More