Indian girl adoption: Israeli NGO seeks tougher surrogacy laws

Shocked at the news of a convicted Israeli paedophile gaining custody of a four-year-old Indian girl through an agreement with a surrogate mother in India, an NGO here is pushing for more stringent norms on surrogacy to prevent such instances.
"We are trying to make changes in the legislation and the court is already mulling such a request. There is no screening process for surrogacy in Israel. We are demanding that the process be made similar to adoption to prevent such horror stories", Elizabeth Levy, Director for International Relations at Israel National Council for the Child (NCC), an NGO for Children's rights, told PTI.

The NCC brought the story of the four-year-old Indian girl to light after it was tipped off about the man's past through an anonymous email a couple of months ago, and while doing its own due diligence informed the police, local social services, the justice ministry and the girl's school which was apparently unaware of the father's prior convictions.
The man legally adopted the child through an agreement with the surrogate Indian mother and under current legislation, the Israeli authorities do not have the power to remove the girl away from him.
According to an independent probe conducted by NCC, the man served 15 months in jail for sexually abusing five young children while they were under his supervision, some repeatedly, and is recognised as a paedophile by the authorities.

Meanwhile, it has not been possible to know if the little girl has undergone any harassment or psychological trauma but is being observed by social services while continuing to stay with the 'father' under existing Israeli laws.

"The welfare authorities have placed the man under supervision and ordered him to seek psychological treatment," Levy said.
Foreign surrogacies have recently surged in Israel as potential parents, particularly homosexual couples who under Israeli law are barred from using surrogates in the country, have been willing to travel abroad and pay more in order to circumvent the protracted procedures in their home country.

"In the past six years, 200 children have come to Israel via foreign surrogacy," the NCC official said.
"This case is a good wake up call that there are changes that have to be made," she stressed.
In contrast to the rigorous interviews and background checks required of new parents undergoing surrogacy and adoption in Israel, parents of adopted children from surrogates abroad are subjected to more lenient screenings.
Meanwhile, the Israeli health ministry in response to a letter from NCC Executive Director Yitzhak Kadman to Health Minister Yael German said that it was considering new policies to secure the protection of children born in overseas surrogacies.