Bill soon to regulate fast expanding business of surrogacy

Keen on bringing a new bill to regulate the fast expanding business of surrogacy and assisted reproductive technology clinics, the Department of Health Research today said there is no proposal to have an expert committee to relook the proposed legislation.
Holding that the bill is a comprehensive legislation framed after discussions with all stakeholders and which takes care of the interests of the woman and child during surrogacy, the Department of Health Research in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare wants the legislation enacted soon.
Besides framing regulations for surrogacy, the draft Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill circulated to various ministries seeks to regulate the ART clinics and banks across the country and proposes to set up a national registry for them which will be a central data bank.

The Department has called for early enactment of the bill saying a lot of time has gone into holding of discussions and seeking of suggestions from various stakeholders.
"At present, there is no proposal to have any expert committee in the Department of Health Research to look into the draft ART (Regulation) Bill," said a senior official in the Department.
"There is urgent need to have a law to regulate ART clinics and put in place regulations for surrogacy. This is a very important bill and we are very serious to introduce it in Parliament," he said.