Surrogacy Rules Wipe Out Hope For Childless Couples In Britain

London: Days after NDTV brought you the story of an Indian-origin British couple struggling to get back their frozen embryos from India after the commercial surrogacy ban, many couples in London have come forward with a similar plea to the Indian government.

Several British couples of different ethnicities have shipped frozen embryos to India with a hope to have a child sometime in the future.

The Fabricatore family, for instance, welcomed Gabriella into their world two years ago. At that time, they had shipped frozen embryos for future after trying to have children for years and multiple failed attempts of in vitro fertilization (IVF).

The little girl Gabriella might have a possible sibling in those frozen embryos.

Now after being denied permission to either transfer the frozen embryos into a surrogate woman or ship them back to Britain, the parents are now shattered.

"Are those embryos going to be destroyed? We want to try for another child and it can't be shipped out, it can't be put into a surrogate and I am physically incapable of carrying a child now," said Rekha Fabricatore.

At 51, Nikki is the mother of a 8-year-old girl and a 6-year-old boy. After five painful attempts of IVF, Nikki and Bobby became parents through surrogacy. Although late parents, they are among the lucky ones who have a complete family.

The couple has asked the Indian government to treat their story as a case study before imposing a blanket ban. An emotional Nikki said, "India was not our first choice for surrogacy. It was Britain, but the experience we had here was really bad. We were blackmailed by the surrogates."

The fate of a large number of frozen embryos in Indian fertility clinics is unknown.

Shafin Shah, a father to one, said: "The set up in India is phenomenal. It just needs a little more regulation. Not a complete ban."

The bill to ban surrogacy is likely to come up in Parliament during the upcoming winter session.

Meanwhile in Britain, where commercial surrogacy is banned, the government and agencies have had consultations with many couples and others involved on their demands to relax the norms and allow genuinely childless couples to benefit from surrogacy too. The report is likely to be out within a month.