Face of Surrogacy in India.....Lets salute all “TARAS”

Sabina and Tarun were happily married for seven years ..They had everything right in their life, the ample bank balance for all luxury, which one can think of………still a visible vacuum was there which was quite prevalent inside the walls of their house. They did not have a child, Sabina had three miscarriages in the last four years, She was advised by the doctor not to endanger her life and was strictly warned by the doctors against any such further cases, but the couple was dying to be parents. A poisonous feeling of being barren for the whole life was creeping in Sabina’s mind.The echos of cacophony of myriad dissonating emotions could be felt loud in their unsaid conversations across the corridors. Tarun thought for adoption but Sabina denied, as they wanted something of their own as bond of love and affection with a child comes only & only through your genes and your own DNA(s).

Then one of the common friends suggested them for the option of surrogate mother. That common friend seemed to be the miraculous messenger to the couple as now they have their own child. He is a grown up boy by now. The child has a nose and built like Tarun and Sabina feels great to see Tarun’s refection in him. Now the dining table looks perfectly complete. It’s a complete family now. Had Tara not agreed for bearing the child as a surrogate mother, the dessert of the couple’s life could have aggravated and we know only cactus breeds in the desserts. She gave them something for which they were yearning since long time. Something which can never be worded. Now Sabina could very much feel the most heavenly feeling of being a mother, which was almost not viable for her. Tara is not less than a God to the couple.A gift of motherhood from Tara to Sabina was like a full fledged rain in their barren life. Tara has the devout feeling that she could give the most beautiful and precious thing to the couple as a surrogate mother, and at the same time she got the payement for this so that she could touch some of the tentative equilibriums of her life as her family was undergoing a financial crisis. If we introspect, all such “Taras” should be amongst the highly respected women of the society.
We can relate to the depiction from movies namely Chupe-Chupke and Filhaal, wherin Preety Zinta and Sushmita Sen played the role of surrogate mothers. Although as far as this subject is concerned, the Indian cinema has withheld some of its pragmatic aspects. As in both the cases, the surrogate mothers didn’nt have a child already, wherin if we look at its legal aspect, Its mandatory for a perspective surrogate mother to have a child so that she has experience of delivering a baby and the affinity could be managegable with the second child.

As we know that surrogacy or surrogate means substitute which means using of a substitute mother in the place of the natural mother. So a Surrogate mother is a woman who agrees, usually by contract and for a fee, to bear a child for a couple who are childless because the wife is infertile or physically incapable of carrying a developing fetus. Often the surrogate mother is the biological mother of the child, conceiving it by means of artificial insemination with sperm from the husband. and the resulting embryo is implanted in the surrogate mother's uterus. Generally we can say that the uterus is borrowed for the development of embryo as the wife is not fit for bearing a child.It can be achieved by sexual intercourse, home artificial insemination and many other methods and techniques available at fertility centres.

When spoken to a few surrogate mothers, one of them said that they tell to their partners, some of them said that they do not disclose and tell the husband that the child did not survive post delivery. According to one survey conducted “With regards to whether or not the child should be told about his or her origins, 26 of them (77%) felt that the child should be told, while the remaining eight (23%) felt either uncertain or that the decision was not theirs to make. It is completely upto the discretion of the intended parents. None of them said that the child should not be told about the surrogacy.In India, according to the intended parents, the acquaintance with surrogate mothers banishes the very moment as soon as the child is handed over.

India has been identified as fecund market for surrogacy because of the comparitevely low cost. According to the report appearing in the website www.thedailybeast.com/blog, Indian surrogacy is now a half-billion dollar industry. Surrogate mothers in India cost considerably lower, about, a fourth of what it would cost in the U.S.The face of commercialized surrogacy is getting unveiled due to interference of legality and contracts. Its has been legalized since 2002 in India.

There are numerous circumstances and many complexities attached to it। Like any of the parties might withdraw post delivery one of the reasons could be that the intended parents wanted a baby boy and she is a baby girl even the surrogate mother mite withdraw on the basis of emotional grounds. Who will bear the cost if the baby does not survive immediately after delivery? What are the consequences if the surrogate mother dies during delivery? The Law Commission of India has submitted the 228th Report on “need for legislation to regulate assisted reproductive technology clinics as well as rights and obligations of parties to a surrogacy .”
“Mother” the name itself is sacrosanct then the question arises as to why surrogate mothers are not been respected in our society? People in India are not very much open to the idea of surrogacy due to social constraints and conservatism.

A tough valor is required to be a surrogate mother. As we say know, of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother. A gift of motherhood can never be surpassed. Lets not attach blue musings to surrogate mothers; A dead vegetation has flourished again with the onset of a new life. Kudos to all surrogate mothers.