What women want: Labour laws!

June 16, 2010

The persistent question of children — “Where do babies come from?” — has always confronted parents. The answer to this has become more and more complex, while medical technology has traversed far ahead. Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) requires sympathetic responses from parents, professionals and society. One of the techniques of ART is surrogacy, an anxious, second-choice option for those who cannot conceive and give birth to a child. Most commissioning parents donate their gametes to create a child through surrogacy. Surrogates help those trapped in the awful math of sterility become parents, and the payment they receive is paltry as opposed to the hazards, distress and hardship they undergo. As per the rules in India, a healthy woman can become surrogate for a maximum of three times. Surrogacy is complicated by queries from all the important sectors — financial, legal, political, social and moral. We spoke to women on what it takes to fulfil one of humanity’s deepest longings — the desire to have a child. (The Hindu )