Surrogacy (Regulation) Act 2021 And The Right To Procreation In India

Abstract

Though motherhood completes a woman but it is not possible for every woman to embrace motherhood naturally. Infertility is a health
problem faced by people across the world since time immemorial. With advancement of science and technology came the solutions for
infertility and specially with development of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) technology came the solution to have one’s own child. With
IVF came in the concept of surrogacy, which finds a mention even in Bible and in Hindu Puranas. Due to low cost, less legislative
control and easy availability of surrogates, India became a hub for international surrogacy. As each side has two coins the boom in
surrogacy came in with its own negative consequences and apprehensions of exploitation of the poor surrogates and moral arguments
against renting of womb. The Indian Legislature passed the new Surrogacy (Regulation) Act 2021, whereby India recently banned
commercial surrogacy. Through the present research paper, the researcher aims to throw light on the legislative measures for surrogacy
at the national and international level and aims to examine the scope of Right to reproduction in India. Through this research paper
the researcher aims to critically analyze the constitutional validity of Surrogacy (Regulation) Act 2021, in light of Article 21 of the
Indian Constitution. The researcher has also discussed the responses generated through field research carried out by the researcher by
interviewing surrogates personally in Anand, Gujarat in the present research paper to evaluate the informed consent on the parts of the
surrogates while entering into surrogacy agreement.