MEA may allow American woman to take home surrogate child

The Ministry of External Affairs may finally grant clearance to United States national J Pearllinda Van Buren to take home her seven-week-old baby born to a surrogate mother here.

According to officials at the Regional Passport Office (RPO) here, the New Yorker may soon get an identity certificate for her baby boy, named Emperor Kaioyus Van Buren who was born through surrogacy at Rama Fertility Clinic at Amirpet on December 7.

The identity certificate will help Van Buren fly with her baby to Jamaica, where her husband is based.
This case has highlighted the inadequacy of the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill of 2008 in addressing contemporary issues.

At first, the baby was denied an Indian passport because he is not an Indian national in the first place.

What has compounded problems for Van Buren is the fact that her husband, Eric Dalton Green, a Jamaican national and the only person with biological connection to the baby, cannot come to India.

Guidelines

The guidelines set by the first draft of the Bill proposed by P M Bhargava Committee (CCMB Founder) mentions that at least one gamete must be present in creating the child to claim it as their own. But Van Buren claimed the baby has no biological link with the child Emperor as she carried her husband’s sperm to India.

Van Buren arrived in India with seven samples of her husband’s semen and she decided to try for surrogacy in Hyderabad about 18 months ago. The conception was successful with the semen sample at Dr Rama Devi Fertility Clinic.

She explained that her husband developed a fear of flying as a child after his father died in an air crash and cannot fly here at any cost.

“It would have been easy for us to assist her to get the necessary paper work done if her husband could come to India. We don’t have a Jamaican consular office here and that compounded the problem,” said PSN Prasad, Advocate of International Law helping the clinic in legal issues related to surrogacy.

Now, the RPO has sent the baby’s documents to the ministry of external affairs with a letter explaining the situation and seeking advice on issuing an identity certificate and travel document. As per the Passport Act, a separate application is required for ID certificate for infants.

 According to sources, the MEA needed a representation from the boy’s father and Green has already sent it to the MEA paving way for the issuance of the certificate.  “I am glad to hear that the MEA has agreed to send the certificate of identity for my son. I have to leave as my finances are low and I am tired of flying between Hyderabad and Delhi,” Van Buren told Deccan Herald on Friday.

Earlier, fed up of red tapism in the bureaucracy she had resorted to the extreme step of leaving her baby at the Regional Passport Office to shed light on her situation and that finally grabbed attention of the media.  “I do not bother what anyone thinks. I want to take my child back to my country. I just tried to protest and explain to the passport officials about the plight of a baby without his mother. I only acted like I had left my baby,” she said.

Looking back on her predicament, Van Buren said she was still happy for choosing India to get a child: “It was my dream, not only to get a surrogate baby, but also to get one from India, which has a good culture. Besides, the expenses involved here is considerably low. We spent around $25,000 which is quite cheap.”