Union Health MinisterHarsh Vardhan on Monday tabled the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019 in the LokSabha.
The bill had been passed by the Lok Sabha but lapsed after the dissolution of the House. The Cabinet earlier approved the introduction of the Bill that aims to prohibit commercial surrogacy in India.
The bill proposes toregulate surrogacy in the country by establishing a National Surrogacy Board atthe central level and state surrogacy boards and appropriate authorities in thestate and union territories.
The bill's mainpurpose is to ensure effective regulation of surrogacy, prohibit commercialsurrogacy and to allow ethical surrogacy.
The bill introduced by Harsh Vardhan said that only Indian couples who have been legally married for at least five years would be allowed to opt for surrogacy and it seeks to allow ethical altruistic surrogacy to the intending infertile Indian couple who are married between the age of 23-5 years and 26-55 years for female and male respectively.
The bill also saysthat w woman should be allowed to act as a surrogate mother only once andshould be a close relative of the intending couple and should be anever-married woman having a child of her own and she should be between 25-35years of age.
As per the statement ofobjects and reasons of the bill, India has emerged as a surrogacy hub forcouples from different countries for past few years and due to lack oflegislation to regulate surrogacy, the practice of surrogacy has been misused bysurrogacy clinics which lead to rampant commercial surrogacy and unethicalpractices.
