New Delhi, March 19 -- Gay and single foreigners will be able to take their born-in-India babies home.
The home ministry has decided to let babies - commissioned by gay and single foreigners after a July 2012 ban - to leave the country when they are born this year. Only heterosexual married couples are eligible for a medical visa to travel to India to commission surrogacy under the new visa rule.
But realizing the urgency of the situation after a gay Australian couple came out with their story about hiring surrogate mother in India for their child, the home ministry has decided to revisit the issue.
"This is a special case.... Else we will be left with hundreds of parentless, stateless children. We can't open an orphanage for them," a senior home ministry official told HT.
The official said exit clearances would be given on a case-to-case basis after making sure that foreigners or clinics weren't abusing the relaxation.
Home ministry officials, however, insist they had already held extensive discussions for a year before imposing the bar.
They got working on the new rule after a couple of instances where countries such as Germany and Japan refused to give citizenship to infants born to surrogate mothers in India.
Commercial surrogacy is governed under a set of guidelines issued by the Indian Council for Medical Research but the guideline isn't enforced.
The government doesn't even have a clue about the number of Assisted Reproductive Technology Clinics that handle surrogacy cases.
Such a weight has been lifted from our shoulders after reading this. This is such a releif to us. We have worried and worried about this issue for the past couple months. Although it is just a news statement it is at least a promising step in the right direction.
Thanks for following our journey
xxxxxx Chris and Tim
