Why It’s Unfair To Ban Commercial Surrogacy?

Altruistic surrogacy alone will deprive many would-be parents of options. Earlier last month, a couple in our family successfully got custody of their newborn through surrogacy. Filled with emotional highs and lows, the past nine months left the parents-to-be disillusioned about the prevailing surrogacy practices. 

Following a successful embryo transfer, the surrogate, after receiving a hefty advance payment, went underground despite the formal facilitation of the process by a reputed gynaecologist. She appeared only a month after delivery to hand over the parents' prized possession. The blessed parents swiftly forgot their misery as soon as all the paperwork was completed and they received their little bundle of joy in their hands. After all, their dream of having their biological child had finally come true.

Any Solutions For The Illegal Organ Trade Thrives In India?

By LIKHAVEER | INNLIVE

Kidney and liver diseases are growing in India. But the number of cadaver donations remains low.

On June 24, Mukesh Chaddwa died of kidney failure in Mumbai. His name featured in a waiting list maintained by Mumbai’s Zonal Transplant Coordination committee for people requiring a life-saving kidney transplant. The patients registered by the committee are allotted a kidney when the family of a brain-dead patient consents to donate his or her organs.

Focus: Why 'Sex Work' Should Be Decriminalised In India?

In India, the debate around sex work is often convoluted between that of, legalization, abolition and an in-between demand for decriminalization. Opinions oscillate between- sex cannot be work because it is an intimate human act and should not be sold, to equating it with any other form of labor and hence completely valid. 

The debate is further made complex by the socio-political scenario as the Indian state maintains an ambiguous stand on sex-work; neither overtly approving it nor disapproving it and allowing it to exist in the underbelly of our society.

The Dark & Horrifying Tale Of Delhi's 'Great Baby Bazaar'

A new industry is taking deep roots in the Delhi’s underbelly. This is the great baby bazaar where bidding for a newborn starts the day a hapless woman gets pregnant, while the kid is still in the womb. 

Girls and young women, mostly from Jharkhand, are fodder to this illicit business. They are brought to the national Capital on the pretext of being employed as helps, then raped and sexually assaulted by the unscrupulous owners and employees of placement agencies and forced to bear babies. But that’s not the end of their misery. 

Burgeoning Surrogacy Industry In China Has Legal Issues

China has quietly emerged as one of the most active countries in the world when it comes to surrogacy.

More than four years after sparking a nationwide debate over its ethical and legal propriety, China’s surrogate mother industry seems to have found acceptability — if not respectability. In fact, wombs-for-rent businesses are thriving in the world’s most populous country, where some studies indicate an estimated one in eight couples face fertility problems. Reports of a secretive surrogate pregnancy service, operating in a legal “gray area,” were widespread in early 2006 and intermediary websites were recruiting volunteers despite a government crackdown.

Special Report: Trafficked Adivasi Tribal Girls In Jharkhand Forced To Surrogate, Deliver Babies For Sale

From the time she was 13, Phulmani (name changed) was forced to act as a surrogate mother and deliver six children by human traffickers from Jharkhand, widely considered a hotbed of modern day slavery.

Phulmani, now 31, was made to breastfeed the children – all born in consecutive years in Delhi – for about six months before giving them to the agents who sold them off.

The resident of Patru village in Gumla district was rescued by rights activists and returned to Jharkhand last year. Her experiences have left her emotionally and physically scarred.

An Enquiry: The Right to Abort in 'Surrogacy Contracts'

This article makes an enquiry into the right to abort in surrogacy contracts as visualised by the bill on Assisted Reproductive Technology drafted by the Indian Council of Medical Research and introduced in Parliament in 2010. It argues that the bill's anti-abortion clause raises important questions of ethics, fundamental rights as well as legal remedies, if any, in the event of a breach of contract.

Surrogacy is a contract for services which are highly personal in nature, and which are intended to bring social and familial contentment to the commissioning parents through childbirth.

Special Report: 'The Lethal Business Of IVF Clinics In India'

Egg donors in coma and cancer deaths: the hidden truth of infertility treatment.

Four year into their marriage, Geeta (name changed) and her husband had everything that they could hope for, except for a baby. The desperate couple consulted a gynaecologist in New Delhi. Geeta was diagnosed with tubercular infection of the fallopian tube, one of the three organs essential for conceiving.

Pain Of Separation: Separated By Birth And Visa Laws, Brother And Sister Languish On Opposite Shores

By Siddharth Mahi | INNLIVE

It’s a story of pathos that involves two siblings separated by oceans, fractious parents and complicated visa laws. Ten-year-old Vedant and his five-year-old sibling Medhavi, born to an Indian origin American citizen, have never met. 

They only speak to each other on Skype and have never done the ordinary things brothers and sisters do—play, quarrel, hug or have adventures together. 

Every March, Medhavi ties a rakhi on Vedant and showers kisses on him—all through Skype. Vedant lives in Houston, Texas while Medhavi, thousands of miles away in Vadodara, Gujarat. Their only fault is to be born as In-vitro fertilisation (IVF) babies, which has placed them in legal limbo, and at risk of becoming stateless.

Baby Business: The Murky World Of Reproductive Medicine

By Sarah Williams | INNLIVE

The birth of a new baby signifies hope, promise and family. But for an estimated one in 10 Canadians it's a dream that is out of reach without the help of modern science and technology.

Egg donation, sperm donation and surrogacy are all options available to infertile couples. But sometimes the desire to have a baby is so strong that it has led Canadians to venture into an increasingly murky world of assisted human reproduction.

The Internet has opened up infertility treatments to a global marketplace. A world where searching for the perfect designer baby is available to those who can pay. That's the world where one woman, who agreed to talk to W5 on condition that we concealed her identity, went looking for her baby.

In Focus: The Booming Great Indian 'Egg-Donation' Industry

By Likha Veer | INNLIVE

The death in Delhi has brought spotlight back on the fast rising but largely unregulated egg donation industry in India, riding on lucrative money and word of mouth. 

Among the registrations from 149 countries on a website offering free registration to egg and sperm donors, surrogate mothers and intended parents, the highest for egg and sperm donors — 5,293 — is from India. The second-placed US is way behind, at 1,509. Of the registrations from India, 1,113 are from Maharashtra, 587 from Delhi and 433 from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka each.

Celebrity Fertility Doctor Turns Out A Quack In Bangalore

By Achuta Shetty | INN Live

Many eyebrows were raised after the arrest of Bangalore-based fertility specialist K.T. Gurumurthy. The disbelief is understood since Gurumurthy, who had successfully handled complicated pregnancy cases of top celebrities from South India, landed behind the bars last week when his medical degrees were found out to be fake.

National award-winning actress Tara Anuradha, Bhavya and a host of other actresses were among his marquee clientele. Gurumurthy never missed an opportunity to flaunt his top connections. Last year, when Tara attained motherhood under his medical supervision, billboards featuring the doctor and his highprofile client dotted the skyline of Bangalore.

Virgin Births - The Issues Of Surrogacy, The Possibilities Of Artificial Wombs, New Culture Dominating India

By Sara Williams | INN Live

SPECIAL REPORT In 1924, evolutionary biologist JBS Haldane coined the term ectogenesis to describe how pregnancy in humans could be provided through an artificial womb. In a fictional account, he had two future scientists describe the birth of the world’s first ectogenic child. “Now that the technique is fully developed, we can take an ovary from a woman, and keep it growing in a suitable fluid for as long as twenty years,” one of the characters announced.

This, by the character’s calculations, would result in “a fresh ovum each month, of which 90 percent can be fertilized, and the embryos grown successfully for nine months”, at which point they could be “brought out into the air”. Haldane imagined that artificial wombs might become so popular by 2074 that only a small minority, “less than 30 percent of children”, would then “be born of woman”.

Focus: Crowdfunding, Moolah For A Mad Thought, Anyone?

By Maira Sakshi | INN Live

Crowdfunding projects are no longer only about helping acid victims, generating electricity for a rural village or making a statement through a movie. They have now become quirky and wildly creative, with people seeking funds for classes, internships, surrogacy and even funerals.

When 26-year-old Shree Kant Bohra, the founder of a technology-oriented startup in Bangalore approached global crowdfunding website Indiegogo early this year, it wasn’t to fund a projectwith a social cause. It wasn’t to help generate electricity for the rural confines of a backward state. Nor was it to stop human trafficking or make a movie on LGBT issues in India. His reason to approach the website was a 30 x 30 -inch board game called Politics of India.

Bollywood 'Controversial' In 2013, Wishes 'Good' In 2014

By Niloufer Khan | INN Live

BOLLYWOOD ROUNDUP Bollywood continued to be mired in controversy this year with actress Jiah Khan's suicide, Sanjay Dutt's return to jail, SRK-Salman's hug on Eid and SRK facing allegation of sex determination over the birth of his third child through surrogacy.

The biggest controversy in Bollywood this year was Jiah's suicide, which sent shock waves in the film fraternity.

The 25-year-old actress, best known for her roles opposite Amitabh Bachchan in 'Nishabd' and with Aamir Khan in 'Ghajini', was found hanging at her flat in suburban Mumbai in June this year.

The Baby Factory: Surrogacy, The Rich Business In Gujarat

By Aakaar Patel / Gandhinagar

In a cramped bylane off Station Road in Anand, men camp beneath the banyan tree, or perch on a bench waiting for their women to complete their business at an adjacent clinic. Foreigners and Indians, all couples, are dropped off by taxis at the entrance, husbands holding wives by the hand. India's cooperative milk capital has also turned into its surrogacy hub: The Sat Kaival Hospital and Akanksha Infertility Clinic run by Dr Nayana Patel, 55, and her husband Hitesh, 57, churns out 30 babies on average every month.

Insight: Where’s The Freedom To Marry Who You Want?

By Sandip Roy / Kolkata

When my friend Aditya Advani came out to his mother in the early 90s, she suggested they run a matrimonial ad in the Hindustan Times to find him a good husband. In 1993 when he took his partner Michael Tarr home to New Delhi from California, Aditya resisted going to a family wedding. “No one is ever going to come to my wedding,” he complained. His mother thought for a moment and said, “Why not? We could have a ceremony for you and Michael.” The family’s swamiji dedicated it to Ayyappa or Hariharaputra, son of the union between two male gods, Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva.

Special Report: 'New Born Babies For Sale In Gujarat'

By Aakar Patel / INN Bureau

A case of human trafficking against Dr Bharat Atit, a gynaecologist in Ahmedabad, has brought to light the seamy side of surrogacy and adoption in India. The Ahmedabad Crime Branch says Atit sold two babies to a childless couple from Porbandar, who were under his treatment, for Rs.8 lakh.

The crime branch police stumbled upon the case while investigating a rape complaint filed by Manjula Thakur, aka Mona, of Ahmedabad against a Rajkumar Yadhav last July. The police said Rajkumar was Manjula's boyfriend and that she filed a false complaint after they quarrelled over money she had received for selling her infant son.

Special Report: Indian Celebrities on 'Surrogacy Spree'

By Rashmi Kalia / Chandigarh

Surrogate babies are in news, all thanks to the khans of the Bollywood. Not long ago, surrogacy was a hush-hush affair for childless couples in India, who would resort to staying low key for a number of months, while they planned a child through surrogacy, only to announce to the world that they had been blessed with a baby through natural means.

Official: Shahrukh Khan Names Surrogate Baby 'AbRam'

By Niloufer Khan / Mumbai

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan confirmed for the first time the premature birth of his and his wife Gauri Khan’s surrogate baby boy, who has been named 'AbRam'. Shah Rukh, 47, made the news official about his surrogate baby via a statement. “Amidst all the noise that has been going around, the sweetest is the one made by our newborn baby, 'AbRam'. He was born prematurely by several months, but has finally come home,” said Shah Rukh.

“Gauri and our whole family have been dealing with his health issues for a long time now,” he added.

Explaining his longstanding silence on the matter, he said: “As a family, our silence on this subject has been because of the personal nature of emotional strife that we have been going through due to his health.”