The Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill, 2020- A Critical Analysis

Abstract

The Assisted Reproductive Technologies (Regulation) Bill, 2020 is a new legislation that aims to regulate the surrogacy industry for which India has become a preferred destination by foreign citizens looking for “wombs for rent”. This study intends to investigate the role of a surrogate in the Bill's overall scheme, which focuses on the assisted reproductive technology business as a whole, of which surrogates are a component. The author finds in this study that the Bill ignores most of the problems relevant to a surrogate's interests, making her a minor actor in a billion-dollar industry to which she contributes significantly. In explaining this position, the author has analysed other aspects of the Bill also in detail while concluding generally that the Bill mainly thrusts the power of regulating commercial surrogacy in private players of the ART industry instead of giving her an independent berth. In fact, the Bill has been framed according to the processes in which the industry runs at present and to which the surrogates thrust themselves for money keeping their bargaining power questionable. Other ancillary shortcomings of the Bill, necessary to understanding the role of a surrogate has also been dealt with in the paper by the author.