The Tamil Nadu health department has launched an investigation after a shocking case of a minor girl allegedly raped and forced to sell her oocytes for surrogacy at fertility centers in Erode district and private hospitals in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. is of.
A 16-year-old girl from Erode district complained on June 2 that she was forced to have sex with her mother’s boyfriend and was asked to sell her eggs eight times. Preliminary investigation revealed that she was taken for assisted reproduction technology Clinics in Erode, Perundurai, Salem and Hosur with fake Aadhar cards.
Oocyte retrieval is a process in which eggs are taken from a woman’s ovaries. It is one of the steps in the in-vitro fertilization process.
Police have arrested the girl’s mother, S Indirani, who was allegedly a habitual oocytes donor, her partner Syed Ali and Malathi, a middleman involved in the sale. Indrani received Rs 20,000 for each sale and Rs 5,000 as commission to Malti Hindu Told. Since the girl was a minor, a fake Aadhaar card 1995 with a different name, address and date of birth was created for the purpose.
Case registered under Section 5(i), (m), (n) (enhanced penetrative sex) along with other sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act, 2012 along with 506 of IPC section 420 (cheating) has been done. (ii) (criminal intimidation) and sections 34 and 35 (targeted) of the Aadhaar Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidy Benefits and Services Act, 2016.
Following this, a six-member team from the Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Services launched an investigation into the incident. Private hospitals in neighboring Kerala and Andhra Pradesh are also said to be under investigation.
The case has focused on exploitative surrogacy, against which Parliament enacted two new laws in December 2021 – Assisted Reproduction technology (Regulation) Act, 2021 and Surrogacy (Regulation) Act 2021 – aimed at regulating ART clinics and banks, preventing abuse, and practicing safe and ethical ART services and surrogacy.
What are the provisions of ART Act and Surrogacy Act?
The Surrogacy Act prohibits commercial surrogacy and allows only “altruistic surrogacy” – surrogacy in which women are paid no fees other than those incurred by the medical procedure – or for couples who suffer from proven infertility or disease. Huh.
The law also stipulates that a surrogate mother must be a close relative of the couple, a married woman who has a child of her own, aged between 25-35 years, and must be a surrogate only once in her life. allows for. It states, “No woman other than a married woman, who has a child of her own and is between the ages of 25 and 35 years on the day of implantation, shall be a surrogate mother or assist in surrogacy by donating her own egg or ovum or otherwise. Will do.”
The case of Erode minor was a clear violation of the above provisions. Not only was her age fake, but according to her complaint she was taken for donation of oocytes at least eight times, while the ART Act states that a woman can donate eggs only once in her lifetime and from that No more than seven eggs can be obtained.
However, it can be difficult to retrieve seven oocytes because each ovary responds differently, explained a gynecologist at a leading private hospital. News18, He said that prior to these news laws, the guidelines set by the Indian Council of Medical Research allowed retrieval of oocytes three times. The gynecologist said that despite the best efforts of doctors to ensure the proper age and marital status of the woman, the agents bringing in women may be too smart and forge documents.
The doctor said that the minimum age for donating oocytes has also been increased from 21 to 23. “Things are changing,” she said.
The ART Act also calls for maintaining the records and data of all donors and updating the National Registry, which is meant to act as the central database for all facilities. It may also prove to be a protective shield for doctors, was quoted by Priya Kannan, embryologist, Garabba Rakshambigai Fertility Centre. Hindu,
Although strict enforcement of the Acts could help avoid cases like the recent ones in Erode, experts have cautioned over the controversial repercussions of the new laws. “The barometer of domestic philanthropic surrogacy will be a vent for corruption and exploitation, taking the business of surrogacy into unethical hands,” wrote one legal commentator. Indian Express,
Recently, a 31-year-old married woman approached the Delhi High Court and questioned why marital status, age or gender should be the criterion to prevent someone from performing surrogacy as under the new Act a married couple can only be married on medical grounds. One can opt for surrogacy. , His co-petitioner, a 32-year-old unmarried man, said the two laws deny “the freedom we have under the Constitution to exercise our reproductive choice”.
While experts call for a regulatory law that prohibits exploitative surrogacy rather than an outright ban, it remains to be seen whether the new acts help reduce fertility treatment abuse.
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