ASSISTED REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY (REGULATION) BILL, 2021
CONTEXT
- The Lok Sabha has passed the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill, 2021.
PROVISIONS OF ART BILL
- Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) – The Bill defines ART to include all techniques that seek to obtain a pregnancy by handling the sperm or the oocyte (immature egg cell) outside the human body and transferring the gamete or the embryo into the reproductive system of a woman.
- Examples of ART services include gamete (sperm or oocyte) donation, in-vitro-fertilisation (fertilising an egg in the lab), and gestational surrogacy (the child is not biologically related to surrogate mother).
- ART services will be provided through –
- ART clinics, which offer ART related treatments and procedures, and
- ART banks, which store and supply gametes.
- Regulation of ART clinics and banks – The Bill provides that every ART clinic and bank must be registered under the National Registry of Banks and Clinics of India. The National Registry will be established under the Bill and will act as a central database with details of all ART clinics and banks in the country.
- State governments will appoint registration authorities for facilitating the registration process.
- Conditions for gamete donation and supply – Screening of gamete donors, collection and storage of semen, and provision of oocyte donor can only be done by a registered ART bank.
- A bank can obtain semen from males between 21 and 55 years of age, and oocytes from females between 23 and 35 years of age.
- An oocyte donor should be an ever-married woman having at least one alive child of her own (minimum three years of age).
- The woman can donate oocyte only once in her life and not more than seven oocytes can be retrieved from her.
- A bank cannot supply gamete of a single donor to more than one commissioning couple (couple seeking services).
- Conditions for offering ART services – ART procedures can only be carried out with the written informed consent of both the party seeking ART services as well as the donor.
- The party seeking ART services will be required to provide insurance coverage in the favour of the oocyte donor (for any loss, damage, or death of the donor).
- A clinic is prohibited from offering to provide a child of pre-determined sex. The Bill also requires checking for genetic diseases before the embryo implantation.
- Rights of a child born through ART – A child born through ART will be deemed to be a biological child of the commissioning couple and will be entitled to the rights and privileges available to a natural child of the commissioning couple. A donor will not have any parental rights over the child.
LACUNAE OR CONCERNS IN BILL
- As was pointed out in the debate in the Lok Sabha, the ART Bill discriminates against LGBTQI+ individuals, live-in couples, and single male parents.
- The law, at the core of it, goes against the spirit of the Supreme Court’s decision in Navtej Singh Johar, continuing to discriminate against same-sex couples in their right to raise a family.
- In this regard, it appears paternalistic and heteronormative values have driven both the Surrogacy Bill and the ART Bill, with the ART Bill defining a commissioning couple as an “infertile married couple” and the Surrogacy Bill restricting eligibility to Indian citizens married for at least five years, with no surviving children.