Mumbai:
Over the years, India has emerged as a top global destination for surrogacy but there's also been growing international concern about how surrogacy is practised here.
Thousands of foreigners head to India each year to initiate a process of surrogacy at one of India's In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) clinics. Very often their dream of becoming a parent is fulfilled here only to be thwarted back home in their country of origin which may or may not recognise surrogacy.
Baby Manjhi, for instance, was trapped in a long legal battle. Her parents, a Japanese couple, were divorced after she was conceived by a surrogate Indian mother. Since the Indian law does not grant single men custody of a girl child, her father had to wait for three months to take her home.
Later, twins born to a surrogate mother in India were adopted by a gay Israeli man but they were denied Israeli citizenship for months.
Now, a French national may lose his twin sons because surrogacy is not legally accepted in France.
Such cases prompted the consul generals of eight European countries to send a letter to IVF clinics in Mumbai stating that the clinics must direct foreigners to get clearances from their embassies before initiating the surrogacy process.
This is already stated in Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines but is flouted by many IVF clinics.
''There are lots of cases where ICMR guidelines have been violated. Take this case of the French national. In spite of knowing France does not recognize surrogacy, the clinic went ahead and did it,'' said Amit Karkhanis, medico-legal lawyer.
''If there are centres that don't follow guidelines and ensure women are taken care of, we could be in trouble, we will be in trouble,' added Dr. Duru Shah, Senior Gynaecologist.