Centre amends surrogacy rules, allows couples with medical conditions to use donor gametes

Single women (widow or divorcee) undergoing surrogacy must use self-eggs and donor sperm to avail surrogacy procedures, says the notification

A couple can have a child born through surrogacy but must have at least one gamete from the intending couple. File | Photo Credit: AP

The Central government has modified the Surrogacy (Regulation) Rules, 2022 and notified that both gametes need not come from a married couple in case they are certified as suffering from medical condition. As per the latest amendment, the couple can have a child born through surrogacy but must have at least one gamete from the intending couple.

Also, single women (widow or divorcee) undergoing surrogacy must use self-eggs and donor sperm to avail surrogacy procedures, the notification has said.

The latest amendment comes after the Supreme Court asked why the Centre was not taking a decision on the matter. The Union Health Ministry has now amended the earlier rules that stated that couples undergoing surrogacy must have both gametes from the intending couple.

Form 2 (Consent of the Surrogate Mother and Agreement for Surrogacy) of the Surrogacy Rules read with Rule 7 was amended on March 14, 2023 to stipulate that donor eggs could not be used for gestational surrogacy of an intending couple. This has now been amended by a notification of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The District Medical Board can certify that either husband or wife constituting the intending couple suffers from medical condition necessitating use of donor gamete, then surrogacy using donor gamete is allowed subject to the condition.

“Single women [widow or divorcee] undergoing surrogacy must use self-eggs and donor sperm to avail surrogacy procedures,” the notification read.

Many petitions

The Supreme Court last year received petitions from women across the country after it allowed a woman with a rare congenital disorder to avail surrogacy with a donor egg. The Centre had in March 2023 issued a notification banning donor gametes for couples intending to undergo surrogacy.

The Supreme Court, in January, asked the Centre why it was not deciding for many women rushing to the top court with grievances. The Centre, represented by Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, said last month that the government was reconsidering the amendment brought in surrogacy law last year. Several pleas were filed in the top court following the amendment made in Rule 7 on surrogacy on March 14, 2023.

Previously in December last year, the Supreme Court questioned the purpose of previous rules and said, “The very purpose of surrogacy would get defeated by such rules.” 

Nitiz Murdia, managing director of fertility clinic, Indira-IVF, explained that surrogacy is the practice wherein a woman agrees to carry a foetus and give birth to a baby for someone else without having any parental rights on the child. 

“The latest amendment is a testament to the same that protects the fundamental rights of patients,’’ he added.