Abstract

Surrogacy is a method whereby intended parents who are unable to have children turn to a woman's womb who is ready to carry the child to maturity for them and serves as a stand-in for the biological mother. The Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021, the first legislation governing the practice of surrogacy in India, received the assent of the President on December 25, 2021. This act strictly bans commercial surrogacy and only ratifies the practice of altruistic surrogacy. While surrogacy should be acknowledged as a reproductive right available to all persons regardless of their standing in the community, the provisions of the Act become a major concern as they pose certain barriers inter alia, age restrictions, barring people from the LGBTQ community to make use of the technique and reinforcing the patriarchal norms of the society taking control over the autonomy of females. The progressive law, which attempts to make surrogacy available to those unable to bear children, has failed to be progressive owing to its very own nature by being discriminator and constituting ambiguous clause that leaves room for much debate and misinterpretation. This paper goes through the prevailing practices of surrogacy in the Indian context and gives a critical analysis of the aforementioned Act.

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