Days after the Rajya Sabha select committee eased the strict criteria for surrogacy, the Union cabinet has cleared Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill, 2020, which aims to regulate the in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) clinics in the country. The proposed legislation also set 50 as the upper age limit for women to undergo these procedures.
“This follows the introduction in Parliament of the Surrogacy Regulation Bill, 2020, and the approval of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Bill, 2020. These legislative measures are path breaking steps to protect women’s reproductive rights. This is the third proposed legislation which the government has cleared to protect the reproductive rights of women. 2020 is the year of the women,” Union minister Smriti Irani said.
The bill aims to regulate the market as IVF clinics have mushroomed all over the country, and according to some estimates, the business run over $700 million and is likely to cross $1.45 billion by 2026. India has become a hub of cheap fertility clinics owing to large population which is suffering from infertility.
According to some estimates, the number of infertile couples is upward of 27 million. These clinics also attract sizeable amount of couples from foreign countries.
“India has become one of the major centres of this global fertility industry, with reproductive medical tourism becoming a significant activity. Clinics in India offer nearly all the ART services—gamete donation, intrauterine insemination (IUI), IVF, ICSI, PGD and gestational surrogacy. However, in spite of so much activity in India, there is yet no standardisation of protocols and reporting is still very inadequate,” the cabinet note for the bill said.
The bill seeks to set up a national level registry and regulator which will oversee all the IVF clinics and procedures. It will be mandatory for the such clinics to register with the national and state level boards.
“This legislation not only seeks to protect the reproductive rights of the commissioning couple but also of the woman who seeks to be part of it. The national registry will maintain data on such cases and clinics. Strict confidentiality will be maintained for the couples,” Irani said during the cabinet briefing in the national capital.
The government says the bill will keep a tab on the market and see these facility is not misused as cheaper availability of technology is turning India into a womb market, and in some cases even deciding on the sex of the child.
As the key factor of the bill is setting upper limit of a woman undergoing IVF as 50 years, it will keep a check on older people going in for this procedure. In absence of any law, there have been instances where women who were over 70 became mothers.
Under this bill, a national board will be set up, which will lay down code of conduct to be observed by persons working at clinics, besides ensuring minimum standards of physical infrastructure, laboratory and diagnostic equipment and expert manpower to be employed by clinics and banks.
The bill provides for a national registry and registration authority to maintain a Central database and assist the national board in its functioning. The bill also proposes for a stringent punishment for those practising sex selection, sale of human embryos or gametes, running agencies/rackets/organisations for such unlawful practices.
