INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL SURROGACY

Abstract

Surrogacy is an arrangement of artificially obtaining a child by getting another woman to bear it for the commissioning couple and is usually supported by a legal agreement. When such a woman agrees to bear the child in return for compensation then it is said to be ‘commercial surrogacy’ and when this surrogacy is carried out across different nations, the arrangement is termed as international commercial surrogacy.

Different jurisdictions have different takes on the legality of the arrangement. Some just allow altruistic surrogacy, some allow both altruistic and commercial while some jurisdictions consider all kinds of surrogacy illegal. This difference in legality of the arrangement attracts people to go for cross border surrogacy. The commissioning parents look for women who are economically weaker as compared to them which places then on a position of power and in the absence of any international instrument on the same, these parents or the middlemen involved in the arrangement tend to exploit the children born out of such arrangements who are ‘extra’ or do not meet the expectations of the commissioning parents as they are often abandoned. Such an arrangement instead of helping the economically weaker women improve their social and economic conditions, leads to their exploitation as well by the middlemen or the commissioning parents as they are often paid less than what should be paid to them and in case the children born out are disabled, they aren’t paid at all. This calls for the need to have an international instrument regulating the procedure so that no child is left stateless and without due care; and that no woman is exploited.