How logical is banning commercial surrogacy?

India’s government has cleared the way for a measure that would ban all commercial surrogacy in the country, allowing only close family relatives to become surrogate mothers. The proposed measure is a blow to the thriving but unregulated rent-a-womb industry that many activists say is exploiting poor women. Read https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/rent-a-womb-industry-in-india-may-be-shut-down/2016/08/24/39684d60-79e3-42c9-893d-9ff5998ce179_story.html


The blanket ban on commercial surrogacy is very difficult to understand for me. Exploitation of poor women is cited as the prime mover behind the proposed ban. Is that a valid reason? The logical step should have been to prevent the exploitation, to plug the loopholes in the law, and not banning the entire thing. Exploitaion is everywhere. For example, BPO workers are being exploited by their employers. So what the government should do? Should they ban the entire BPO operation, or should they increase the minimum wages?

Surrogacy is a great scientific achievement, and Indian people should not be denied the fruits of it. Finding close relatives, who have already become mother, for becoming surrogate mother, that too without any commercial consideration, will be extremely hard to find.

This surrogacy business has been very good for earning revenues in foreign currencies. In the past decade, India has emerged as one of the top destinations for childless couples from around the world who pay impoverished women to give birth to have their children. India and the United States are among a handful of countries where the practice of in-vitro fertilization and embryo transfer is allowed. According to one estimate, at least 40,000 surrogate babies were born in the past decade. Many foreigners came to India to hire surrogate mothers for prices that could range from $8,000 to $40,000.  Also, as more and more wealthy Indian people have been getting into it, it has been a good means of economic justice. It's true, the poor women have been exploited. The middle men were taking the bulk of the money. But isn't that the case every where? For example, if the farmer gets rupees 4 per kg  for a produce, the market price is rupees 16. However, I  am not defending the exploitation. There has to be some mechanism to ensure that the surrogate mother gets at least 50% of the total money.

If the proposed bill is passed, there will be two possibilities. First, the entire business may go underground, thereby letting the law enforcement agencies having a field day to earn black money. If the the law enforcement agencies do their job honestly, then the business will go to other countries like Thailand, Georgia etc. Huge flow of Indian currencies to foreign countries is definitely not a good idea.

Lastly, I think this proposed bill is very unscientific and regressive in nature. It might have come out of the brains of some "gau rakshaks"!

Pictures taken from net