Surrogacy - Legal, Ethical, Moral Issues - Page 2

Originally posted by: ruhi86

Think about it in another way. Imagine a woman with already two kids, her husband is a drunkard or unemployed, or both. She can't feel her kids, can't take care of them. The option of surrogacy is best for her as she can earn money quickly, which might be a lot for her. So it can give her family a good future and her real kids can benefit.

I won't say there is no exploitation but there can be exploitation in many professions. Prostitutes are exploited, even Hollywood actresses are, daily labourers are, so if can happen in any profession.

Regarding emotional connect, it's tricky, but I feel the surrogate usually had made her kind regarding this that she will have to part away with the baby, and in my opinion the parents shud provide her with professional counselling too if required.

With proper rule and regulation surrogacy isn't bad, it can be good for both the parties.

I share similar views about most of the points that you have put here. Emotional connect is definitely tricky, but can be dealt with counseling, IMO. I haven't seen any cases of surrogacy in real life, but I feel the commitment that the surrogate already has towards handing over the baby to biological parents after birth is what helps them in getting over the emotional connect.

What our country needs is regulating the procedure of commercial surrogacy so that none of the parties are exploited, especially the surrogate mothers because they are the ones who get exploited in majority of the cases.

Originally posted by: DracarysTrio

I have read a few posts of people about surrogacy, and I was surprised at how ignorant can people be, then they started banging utensils of being a foreigner (I don't consider lala land as foreign, anyway whatever floats their boat). But TSTT (Initially DSDT) is based in India so get over it.

Surrogacy has been legal in India since 2002, there have not been enough debate about this subject as not many people are aware of it but surrogacy has been a part of Indian culture since ages, as mentioned in Mahabharata or Ramayana (Not sure) (I don't believe in the authenticity of these books but if someone wrote about it years ago, I am sure it was practiced back then like I am writing about it now). The guidelines for surrogacy were laid down by ICMR but there was no legislative backing, resulting in commercialization of surrogacy in 2015 the surrogacy industry was about $2B in India. In 2010, a bill was formulated in India but was not passed by the parliament as a law. A new bill was brought in 2016 which contained instruction to legalize only altruistic surrogacy (Where surrogate is a relative of the couple) and couple had to prove their infertility. This is where we stand legally when it comes to surrogacy in India, morally and ethically we have a long way to go as surrogates are exploited by parents, I have sympathy in my heart for both the parties involved but when it comes to Teni's portrayal in the show, and people saying Shorvari was manipulative, I don't recall a single episode where Shorvari or Parth forced Teni to be a surrogate, Teni was a bar dancer, she's now married to Parth Bhanushali, I for one don't see this as exploitation, the only person who was wronged in all this was the biological mother, who lost everything and died knowing none loves her#Sad.

I don't know about the foreign land these people are talking about but I have seen people mentioning Germany and Surrogacy is banned in Germany because a Roman belief was that "Human do not own their body to sell it", ironically, prostitution is legal in Germany and it is home to one of the biggest brothels in the world. Germany is not my idea of a progressive world where same sex marriage was legalized last year, India is yet to be there.

You can discuss what you think about this under the post, let's have a healthy debate...

I have read about the surrogacy bill that is in the process of getting converted into a law, but I was not aware of other legalities. Your post is quite informative in that aspect. One doubt, does the new bill makes only altruistic surrogacy legal? I remember reading that any healthy woman who is married can become surrogate provided it is not her first pregnancy. Not sure though.

I feel surrogacy can be looked at as a boon as long as none of the parties are exploited. In a society like ours, women face immense pressure to produce kids. Ofcourse, medical surrogacy is still practiced in a limited section of society and we have a long way to go before we widely accept it as something that can be beneficial for few unfortunate couples who are part of our own society and don't belong to rich, privileged upper class.

There was a Bollywood movie named Filhaal many years ago which starred Sushmita Sen, Palash Sen, Tabu and Sanjay Suri in lead roles. It was Meghna Gulzar's directorial debut. It was about two friends who are ready to do anything for each other. One of them is passionate about staring her own family but suffers a jolt when she realizes she can't carry her own child and slips into depression. Her friend who is a careerist offers to be surrogate mother to her child. In the later phase it had showed how their relationship develops a lot of complications later and how they overcome it gradually. It had showed both the good and bad sides of such an arrangement, but what I take form it is that, in such cases there is nothing wrong in opting for surrogacy provided you are very clear in your mind what you are getting into. (Something Teni and even Parth-Shorvori had overlooked in the show. And yeah, Teni was NOWHERE exploited in the whole story. Shorvori deserved to get the baby at the end because it was her dream, Teni NEVER had any feelings for the baby).

Adoption is definitely an option, which is probably easier, less problematic and more widely practiced. But even adoption is not an easy process in our country, isn't easily accepted in our society and there are many cases of exploitation there too. There have been cases of rich couples in foreign countries adopting poor kids form India and later abandoning them or torturing them. So, it should be more of a situational decision whether to chose adoption or surrogacy and one being a better option doesn't make the other option unacceptable in my opinion.

Regarding foreign countries, I don't know their laws neither do I have any rights to comment if they are right or wrong. But I know many non Indian viewers of this show (Sidharth fans) who sympathize with Shorvori and feel that it was wrong how her motherly rights were snatched from her. None of them have extreme opinions such as only surrogate mother should be given all rights to decide about baby's future, take a decision whether she wants to keep the baby for herself or give it to the real parents and all women who opt for surrogacy are heartless and go for it only to exploit the poor surrogate mothers.

Originally posted by: Luv_PaRiAnSh

I've watched that movie too, it had tamil actor Vikram as Soundharya's husband.. The movie was a very good one, it depicted the narrow mindset of people especially the husband when it comes to this contriversial issue and how a woman can suffer coz she became a surrogate and how it'll be seen like a taboo by the society

Yes movies like this can give people a better picture and pros and cons on surrogacy,

Originally posted by: _goofyCat_

I share similar views about most of the points that you have put here. Emotional connect is definitely tricky, but can be dealt with counseling, IMO. I haven't seen any cases of surrogacy in real life, but I feel the commitment that the surrogate already has towards handing over the baby to biological parents after birth is what helps them in getting over the emotional connect.

What our country needs is regulating the procedure of commercial surrogacy so that none of the parties are exploited, especially the surrogate mothers because they are the ones who get exploited in majority of the cases.

Yes so the rule can be only a married woman who is already a mother can be surrogate, this can solve the problem of intimacy as she will have her real kids. I am not saying this will erase all the attachments but this will definitely minimise them.

This particular show just ruined everything! Rather it created myths in the mind of the people, now, if you go by this show, one will think hundred thousand times before opting for surrogacy for the reasons every one knows. DSDT ran in a sphere completely reversing, altering,butchering Biology! They just ruined whole human biology! They ruined emotional aspects of the characters too. Surrogate mother lusting after baby's father , trying to shove her ass in between a couple. If they had shown even 1 percent of reality and worked on the surrogates emotion and shown a pure bond, instead of turning surrogate to a pallu dropping wh**e and husband to a pervert and wife to a freaking useless who loses everything she had! She died at last without seeing her baby growing up who would have called her mother,this show would have been a major hit, breaking stereotypes.

Originally posted by: _goofyCat_

I have read about the surrogacy bill that is in the process of getting converted into a law, but I was not aware of other legalities. Your post is quite informative in that aspect. One doubt, does the new bill makes only altruistic surrogacy legal? I remember reading that any healthy woman who is married can become surrogate provided it is not her first pregnancy. Not sure though.

I feel surrogacy can be looked at as a boon as long as none of the parties are exploited. In a society like ours, women face immense pressure to produce kids. Ofcourse, medical surrogacy is still practiced in a limited section of society and we have a long way to go before we widely accept it as something that can be beneficial for few unfortunate couples who are part of our own society and don't belong to rich, privileged upper class.

There was a Bollywood movie named Filhaal many years ago which starred Sushmita Sen, Palash Sen, Tabu and Sanjay Suri in lead roles. It was Meghna Gulzar's directorial debut. It was about two friends who are ready to do anything for each other. One of them is passionate about staring her own family but suffers a jolt when she realizes she can't carry her own child and slips into depression. Her friend who is a careerist offers to be surrogate mother to her child. In the later phase it had showed how their relationship develops a lot of complications later and how they overcome it gradually. It had showed both the good and bad sides of such an arrangement, but what I take form it is that, in such cases there is nothing wrong in opting for surrogacy provided you are very clear in your mind what you are getting into. (Something Teni and even Parth-Shorvori had overlooked in the show. And yeah, Teni was NOWHERE exploited in the whole story. Shorvori deserved to get the baby at the end because it was her dream, Teni NEVER had any feelings for the baby).

Adoption is definitely an option, which is probably easier, less problematic and more widely practiced. But even adoption is not an easy process in our country, isn't easily accepted in our society and there are many cases of exploitation there too. There have been cases of rich couples in foreign countries adopting poor kids form India and later abandoning them or torturing them. So, it should be more of a situational decision whether to chose adoption or surrogacy and one being a better option doesn't make the other option unacceptable in my opinion.

Regarding foreign countries, I don't know their laws neither do I have any rights to comment if they are right or wrong. But I know many non Indian viewers of this show (Sidharth fans) who sympathize with Shorvori and feel that it was wrong how her motherly rights were snatched from her. None of them have extreme opinions such as only surrogate mother should be given all rights to decide about baby's future, take a decision whether she wants to keep the baby for herself or give it to the real parents and all women who opt for surrogacy are heartless and go for it only to exploit the poor surrogate mothers.

The stance of the present government is against commercial surrogacy, as the bill hasn't passed in lower or upper house, its not a law yet so the guidelines of ICMR are the prominent as of now...According to the 2010 bill, the surrogate mother can only be a woman who has given birth to a baby before and she shouldn't surrogate for more than one baby, in 2016 bill commercial surrogacy is illegal (According to my understanding), there will be debate in parliament and committee will add more points if they see fit.


I did not intend to belittle or criticize a nation, my meaning was that we should look at a more progressive society as our idol and Germany is ahead of us in every aspect but not an ideal nation.