The top court had outlined the importance of safeguarding the interests of surrogate mothers, observing the need for a robust system to prevent exploitation, especially given commercial surrogacy was prohibited in India.”There can be a database, so that the same lady is not exploited. A system must be there. Nobody is saying it’s a bad idea, but at the same time, it can be badly used,” the bench had said.The court also discussed alternative mechanisms for compensating surrogate mothers and suggested a designated authority, instead of intending couples, for disbursing payments.”You don’t have to pay directly to the lady. The department pays. You will have to deposit,” the bench proposed.Bhati said the laws currently permitted only altruistic surrogacy, in line with the objective of banning commercial surrogacy, and assured the court of the government’s willingness to consider suggestions.While altruistic surrogacy was commendable, the lack of adequate compensation mechanisms for surrogate mothers posed significant challenges, petitioners said.One of the petitioners said the existing provisions only covered medical expenses and insurance and was inadequate.Dr Arun Muthuvel, a Chennai-based infertility specialist, is the lead petitioner and has challenged the constitutional validity of the twin laws.His plea said the laws were “discriminatory, exclusionary, and arbitrary in nature” which denied agency and autonomy in the discourse on reproductive justice, providing a state-sanctioned notion of the ideal family and restricting reproductive rights.Other petitions raised similar concerns, such as the exclusion of unmarried women from the ambit of the surrogacy law and the restriction on oocyte donations under the ART Act.
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