Surrogacy: Acceptability from Socio-legal Perspective

Surrogacy leads to compromise of the dignity of the child by making the child the object of a Contract ?a commodity. It further compromises the dignity of the mother, even if her participation is voluntary, by merely treating her as a ?womb for hire?. Infertility is considered as a major problem as kinship and family ties are dependent on progeny. This is where surrogacy comes as a supreme saviour. A woman is respected as a wife only if she is mother of a child , so that her husband's masculinity and sexual potency is proved and the lineage continues. Some authors put it as follows: The parents construct the child biologically, while the child constructs the parents socially. Unfortunately, some women due to certain physiological conditions cannot give birth to their own off-spring. The desire for motherhood leads them to search for alternative solutions, and surrogacy presents itself as the most viable alternative. Cheap medical facilities, advanced reproductive technological know-how, coupled with poor socio-economic conditions, and a lack of regulatory laws in India, in this regard combined to make India an attractive option.