JOIN USCentre moves Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill for consideration in Lok Sabha
The Centre on Wednesday moved the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill in the Lok Sabha seeking to regulate in-vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics that mushroomed all over the country while creating benchmark standards for the methods and practices followed in fertility clinics.
Once enacted, the Bill would lead to the creation of a national board to lay down and implement a code of conduct for people working at such clinics, besides determining the minimum standards of physical infrastructure, laboratory, diagnostic equipment and expert manpower to be employed by ART clinics and banks.
Moving the bill for consideration and passage, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said the draft legislation was introduced in the House in September 2020 and was referred to the Standing Committee. The panel made several suggestions that were considered by the government.
One of the panel’s suggestions of not allowing same-sex and live-in couples to have babies born through in-vitro fertilization technology because of the complexities in Indian family system, has been retained in the Bill. But several Parliamentarians demanded withdrawal of such a clause.
“The 2007 Adoption Rules prevents single fathers from adopting a girl and the Bill is silent on the availability of ART for people from LGBTQ community and single parents. I urged the Centre to make ART more inclusive and ensure its availability to all,” said NCP MP Supriya Sule.
Taken together with the surrogacy bill - pending in the Rajya Sabha - the two legislation aim to regulate hundreds of fertility clinics that offer expensive IVF services to childless couples.
Initiating the debate, Congress member Karti Chidambaram described the Bill as a Victorian law as it was not all-encompassing and excluded the LGBTQ community (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer). He also asked the government to consider supporting poor childless parents for taking the help of ART.
BJP member Heena Gavit said the Bill sought to set minimum standards and codes of conduct for fertility clinics and egg/sperm banks. It also proposed stringent punishment for those practicing sex selection and sale of human embryos or gametes.
She said about 80 per cent of ART clinics were not registered and the Bill would ensure strict adherence to the guidelines.
According to a registry maintained by the Indian Council of Medical Research, there are 1,269 ART clinics in India as of November, 2019. The number rises to 1,846 when ART clinics and ART banks are taken together. But there are many unregistered clinics.
The Bill seeks to offer ART services to any women below the age of 50 and men below the age of 55. It says that an egg donor will only be an “ever married” woman with a child with a minimum age of three years and she can donate eggs only once. Not more than seven eggs are to be retrieved.
''The Bill also has a provision that those involved in trafficking and sale of embryos will be fined Rs 10 lakh in the first instance and in the second instance the person could be imprisoned for up to 12 years," Gavit added.
Check out DH's latest videos: