RS chairman refers Surrogacy Bill to Standing Committee

Under this bill, homosexuals, single parents, and live-in couples are also not entitled for surrogacy. Also couples who already have children will not be allowed to go for surrogacy, though they would be free to adopt a child under a separate law.

The bill allows surrogacy only for legally married couples after five years of marriage and with a doctor's certificate stating that they are medically unfit to reproduce. Women within the age group of 23 to 50 years and men between 26 to 55 years will be eligible to go for surrogacy.

To check commercial exploitation and middlemen, the surrogate mother can only be a close relative, like a sister or sister-in-law who is married and has at least one healthy biological child. A woman can be a surrogate only once in her lifetime.

With no law governing surrogacy, India has emerged as a surrogacy hub for couples from different countries. There have been incidents concerning unethical practices, exploitation of surrogate mothers and children born out of surrogacy being abandoned.