Govt orders 4 Tamil Nadu hospitals to shut down over alleged sale of 16-year-old girl's eggs

Chennai: Four private fertility hospitals in Tamil Nadu would be closed down due to their alleged involvement in selling the eggs of a minor girl, who was forced by her family to donate her eggs eight times to private hospitals.  

The announcement was made by Tamil Nadu health minister Ma Subramanian on Thursday who listed several legal actions in the case including shutting down the four hospitals, identified as the two branches of Sudha Hospitals in Erode and Salem, Ram Prasad Hospital in Perundurai and Vijay Srishti Fertility Centre in Hosur, and he further stated that disciplinary action would be taken against these hospitals.  

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The 16-year-old girl from Erode was forced by her mother to sell her eggs to private hospitals in Dharmapuri, Hosur, Erode, and Salem and at a private fertility centre after she hit the puberty age of 12. The investigation revealed that the eggs were sold for the first time without the permission of the girl, and her mother's partner, A Syed Ali had allegedly sexually harassed the girl several times in the last five years. The couple was reported to have been paid Rs 20,000 for each egg and Rs 5,000 as a broker fee, as per the News Minute report. 

Further, it came to the fore that the couple, with the help of a 25-year-old person identified as Surampatti John, managed to acquire a new Aadhaar card with a different name where the girl's birth year was written as 1995. The fake Aadhar card was used so that the girl would pass to be an adult during egg donation. 

The girl's mother and her partner had threatened to kill the girl if she revealed this information about the egg sale to anyone. However, the incident came to light after she left her home and informed her relatives about the situation and the trauma she faced due to it. 

These announcements were made after the investigation report was submitted by the state-appointed inquiry committee headed by the joint director of medical and rural health services (ACTs) Dr A Vishwanathan to the health department. The probe has revealed gross violations under Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act (ART) and Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, reports the Quint. 

The report observed that four hospitals in Tamil Nadu and two hospitals each in Kerala and Tirupathi illegally sold the minor's egg using a fake Aadhar card. 

The report stated that "the girl's actual age is 16 and this was deliberately suppressed." The doctor added, "We have learnt that the child was forced to donate her ova by her own family." Further, the report observed that the hospitals knew the Aadhar card submitted by the family was fake, and still misused the document to continue with the egg selling. 

Further, the health minister also said that the hospitals ask for copies of both sides of the Aadhar card in most egg donation cases, but in this case, the copy of only one side of the Aadhar card was taken by the doctors. He said, "These doctors knew the card was fake. The girl is only 16 years but a man, who claimed to be her husband, has signed the consent form. Their nexus with commercial donors was visible," adding, "This showed that the hospitals obtained the girl's Aadhaar card knowing that it was fake," observing that this gives proof of commercial donation taking place at these hospitals. 

The investigation revealed that no qualified counsellors were present at these centres and the ultrasound images were not stored at the hospitals. The hospital is reported to have not followed rules which makes them mandatory to inform the girl about the consequences of oocyte donation. 

The health department would make recommendations to the Tamil Nadu Medical Council to take disciplinary action against the respective doctors. Ma Subramanian said, "We will take action on the hospitals under the Tamil Nadu Clinical Establishments Act. We are granting the four hospitals 15 days time to discharge all in-patients after treatment. Following this, appropriate steps to shut down the hospitals as per rules will be taken."

He added that they would take steps as per law to immediately shut down the scan centres of these hospitals. Further, talking about the Chief Minister's Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme, he said, "Sudha Hospital, Erode and Vijay Hospital, Hosur are empanelled in the Chief Minister's Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme. We are immediately removing the two hospitals from the scheme."

Listing these directions, the minister said, "Only adult married women in the 21-35 age group with a child are permitted to donate oocyte, only once. In this case, the girl was forced into this several times."

As per a Times of India report, the complaints were made against the two other private hospitals which were also involved in the egg donation, the Mathrutva Fertility Centre in Tirupati and the Sri Krishna hospital in Thiruvananthapuram have also been forwarded to the respective state authorities. The joint directors have been directed to file cases against these hospitals in court and forward complaints against doctors to the state medical council. 

According to the ART Act, violators could be fined up to Rs 50 lakh and ten years of imprisonment. Further, actions have been initiated against the hospitals under the Aadhaar and POCSO acts. The authorities have observed that the hospitals violated the ART (Assisted Reproductive Technology) under ICMR Guidelines, Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994 and the Tamil Nadu Clinical Establishment Act. 

On June 3, the police arrested the girl's mother, the mother's partner, and an intermediary, booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) along with certain provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The intermediary had received Rs 5000 as commission. The police had also arrested the 25-year-old man who had forged the fake Aadhar card of the girl.

Dr Meenakshi Jain, senior reproductive medicine specialist at Mathrutva Fertility Centre, Tirupati told the Hindustan Times that the girl misled them for the sake of money. She said, "We do accept eggs from donors for fertilisation and after bearing all procedural expenses, we pay ₹25,000 to ₹30,000 to them towards medical expenses. We don't do any business with them." 

Dr Jain alleged that the girl using a fake Aadhar card showed her age as 24 and donated her eggs. She said, "She was with us for a couple of days. She said she has one child and had undergone miscarriage once. We have all the records about the treatment given to her. Let any investigation agency come and verify the same." Further, Dr Jain added that they were not aware of the involvement of any middleman in the case, stating, 
"But it appears she has gone to a few other hospitals and done similar donations for the sake of money. It seems to be a big racket."

The girl is currently residing in a government-run children's home, where earlier this month, she had threatened to kill herself. The girl reportedly wanted to go back to her relatives but her request was rejected by the authorities due to investigations. She was eventually provided with counselling. 

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