Why banning commercial surrogacy is not a good idea

The Government of India has decided to pass a law which bans commercial surrogacy. I think it's good that surrogacy is being regulated , because it is often misused and overused. A few unscrupulous clinics were doing too much surrogacy when it wasn't called for, simply in order to make more money, and this needed to be controlled.  When this abuse was highlighted by media reports, the politicians resorted by adopting their standard knee-jerk reflex response , and decided to ban commercial surrogacy completely.At first blush, this seems like a sensible solution , because it is intended to protect poor women who could otherwise be exploited to serve as surrogates. However, it's a poorly drafted law for multiple reasons.For one, it paints all IVF doctors as being crooked , which is extremely unfair. They could easily have had a consultation with ethical, upright IVF doctors who have been doing surrogacy properly for many years, and asked them to provide constructive solutions which would help to protect all the parties involved. There was really no need to ban it when it could easily be regulated properly. This would have been a far more enlightened approach, and is what one expects in a democracy. Instead, they have chosen to fast-track the bill and ram it down everyone's throat, without considering the opinions of IVF specialists; infertile couples; and the surrogate mothers themselves.Unfortunately, politicians don't have a good opinion of doctors, and think of all of th...
Source: Dr.Malpani's Blog - Category: Reproduction Medicine Source Type: blogs