Amended surrogacy rules allow couples with medical condition to use donor eggs/sperm

: The central government has amended the Surrogacy Rules, 2022, allowing married couples to use donor eggs or sperm if one partner suffers from a medical condition preventing biological conception.

Under the new guidelines, certification from the District Medical Board is required, affirming that either the husband or wife of the intending couple is medically unable to contribute gametes, necessitating the use of donor gametes.

However, it stipulated that at least one gamete from the intending couple must be used in the conception of the child through surrogacy.

This means if both the partners have medical problems or are unable to have their own gametes they cannot opt for surrogacy.

For single women, including widows or divorcees, undergoing surrogacy, the regulations mandate the use of their own eggs in conjunction with donor sperm for the surrogacy process.

The amendment came after the Supreme Court last year received petitions from women across the country after it allowed a woman with a rare congenital disorder to avail surrogacy with a donor egg.

The Centre had in March 2023 issued a notification banning donor gametes for couples intending to undergo surrogacy.

The Union Health Ministry amended the earlier rules that stated that couples undergoing surrogacy must have both gametes from the intending couple.

“The very purpose of surrogacy would get defeated by such rules,” an apex court bench had observed in December last year while permitting more than two dozen petitioners to use the donor eggs to become mothers through surrogacy.

In January, the Supreme Court had asked the Centre why it was not taking a decision despite many women rushing to the top court with grievances.

The Centre, represented by Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, said last month that the government was reconsidering the amendment brought in surrogacy law last year.

Several pleas were filed in the top court following the amendment made in Rule 7 on surrogacy on March 14, 2023.

The Rule 7 talks about the ‘Consent of the Surrogate Mother and Agreement for Surrogacy’ and deals about fertilisation of donor oocytes by the sperm of

the husband.