New Delhi: Commercial surrogacy, which is a booming business in India, is set to receive a setback, with the Centre on Wednesday expected to apprise the Supreme Court of banning commercial surrogacy in India. The government will also inform the apex court that it won’t permit couples from foreign countries to have a child through surrogate mothers in India, says a report in The Times of India.

The government, it is learnt held a high level meeting and instructed solicitor general Ranjit Kumar to inform the SC that India will not be allowed to be turned into the surrogacy capital of the world.

Surrogacy will, however, still be available as an option to Indians to have a child, says the government. “The government of India does not support commercial surrogacy in any form,” official sources told the daily.

The Supreme Court had earlier said that commercial surrogacy should not be allowed but was still going on unabated as ‘business’ in the country without any legal sanctity.

A bench comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and NV Ramana had expressed concern that various issues related to commercial surrogacy ?are not covered under the law but the practice was still continuing.

“Commercial surrogacy should not be allowed but it is going on in the country. You are allowing trading of human embryo. It is becoming a business and has evolved into surrogacy tourism,” the bench, which refused to stay the 2013 notification, said.

The apex court had asked the government to bring commercial surrogacy within the ambit of law.

It had asked the government to clarify whether a woman who donates her egg in commercial surrogacy can be said to be the only mother or both surrogate and genetic mother can be said to be mothers of the child.

The bench had also asked the Centre whether commercial surrogacy amounts to economic and psychological exploitation of the surrogate mother and whether the practice is inconsistent with dignity of womanhood.

Regulatory measures must to protect surrogate mothers: NCW

The National Commission for Women (NCW) had earlier, on the 15th of October, Thursday, said that regulatory measures will help in protecting the rights of surrogate mothers and children born though surrogacy in India. The commission also hoped that the Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill, 2014, would be introduced in parliament soon.

Giving details of a national consultation organised here on surrogacy issues on Thursday, NCW chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam said that the parties concerned discussed the draft of the bill while commercial surrogacy was rising in the country.

“It’s very unregulated and unethical in India,” she said at a press conference, adding that the NCW would try to get the proposed bill on the issue introduced in parliament at the earliest.

“Surrogacy is a big business in India,” Kumaramangalam said, adding that it attracts people from across the world considering lower medical costs.

The NCW chairperson said the draft bill, once converted into a law, will protect the health and the rights of surrogate mothers and children born through surrogacy in the country.

“Lots of bills are pending in parliament. The Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill, 2014, is not a political one and should be passed soon after it is introduced,” she said.

Kumaramangalam said various departments and ministries of the central government, including the home ministry and the health ministry, were in consensus over issues related to surrogacy in the country during the day-long conference.

She also expressed concern over trafficking of women and children for various illegal purposes and said these should be stopped.