Surrogate motherhood raises difficult ethical, philosophical, and social issues, and when you add in the money, it becomes even more complicated to look at such an issue from a commercial or business standpoint, especially in India, where there is still no legal provision to protect the surrogate mother, the child, or the commissioning parents’ interests. Renting a womb and having a child is similar to outsourcing pregnancy. Surrogacy is estimated to be worth over $500 million in commerce, with the number of cases expanding at a breakneck pace. The actual scope of this practice in India is unknown, but inquiries have indicated that it has doubled in the previous few years, and that women from rural communities are typically chosen for this type of pregnancy outsourcing. The paucity of study on surrogacy also makes it difficult for government authorities to make informed decisions.
For fear of societal stigma, the majority of women who seek surrogacy insist on anonymity. Some men, notably surrogate moms’ husbands, are outraged by this “encroachment” on their rights. Surrogacy participants claim that their partners, who were initially supportive of them taking on the duty, frequently change their minds once they begin their new role. A woman from the United States described how her fiancée dumped her for another woman. Another surrogate mother’s spouse refused to look at her after she was inseminated.
Is it feasible in India?
While homosexuality is no longer a crime in India, we remain a strongly homophobic culture. The Indian government approved legislation in January prohibiting overseas homosexual couples and single men/women from obtaining surrogates in the country. Only a man-woman pair who have been married for more than two years can be allowed medical visas for surrogacy, according to the diktat. This was reportedly done to enhance the rules and regulations governing surrogacy in India, which is estimated to be worth an astounding Rs 13,033 crore (1.5 billion pounds / 2.4 billion dollars). We suppose LGBT couples will have to wait until we reach a point of reality when it is no longer necessary to have a male and a woman to raise a kid.
