The Indian Government enforced a legislation that provides a range of fertility treatments for couples suffering from infertility: Assisted Reproductive Technologies ART (Regulation) Act of 2021. The act was enforced with the aim of ensuring safe and ethical practices in treating reproductive health issues. 

But before getting into what the act is about, what does ‘surrogacy’ actually mean, and how it affect a woman? 

Surrogacy is a method of assisted reproduction, where a woman (The surrogate mother) agrees to carry and give birth to a child for another couple, who are called the intended parents. This method of reproduction is often an option for individuals or couples who are unable to conceive or carry a pregnancy to term. 

There are many kinds of surrogacy techniques, like traditional surrogacy, where the egg of the biological mother is fertilised with the intended father’s sperm through artificial insemination. While in the gestational surrogacy type, the embryo is created using the egg and the sperm of the intended parents and is implanted into the surrogate mother. This is the most common form of surrogacy used today. 

Surrogacy Affects The Woman

Surrogacy can affect a woman, especially the surrogate mother, on physical, emotional, psychological, social, and legal bases. In India, many women take up the job of a surrogate mother for a wealthy couple, either from India or from abroad. It is in the interest of these women that the ART Act was enacted in the year 2021 and should be implemented duly. 

According to the regulations of the ART Act, all surrogacy clinics and banks need to be registered with the national ART and surrogacy registry. The act also establishes national assisted reproductive technology and surrogacy boards and state boards to regulate all ART practices. Under this act, commercial surrogacy, where the surrogate mother receives significant financial compensation beyond medical expenses, is prohibited. The act also prohibits sex selection, commercialisation of gametes or embryos, exploitation of surrogate mothers or providing false information to regulatory bodies. 

Many critics claim that this act is heteronormative and patriarchal, meaning that it only allows surrogacy to a male-female couple and not homosexual couples or single mothers.