Health Ministry to frame regulations for in vitro fertilisation, embryo transfers and sperm banks
Q. Following the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, health ministry is planning to frame regulations for which services?- Published on 29 Aug 16a. Sperm Banks
b. IVF
c. Embryo transfers
d. All of the above
ANSWER: All of the above
Following the Surrogacy Regulation Bill, the health ministry plans to frame regulations for in vitro fertilisation, embryo transfers and sperm banks.
- Estimates show that assisted reproductive technology of which IVF and surrogacy services are most common is a INR 3000 crore industry
- While regulating clinics, ART Bill is expected to set forth norms for procedures, sperm donations and embryo transfers as well
- ART or Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill is also expected to draw a clear framework for compensation and bringing out guidelines on pricing of such procedures.
- The bill will be brought to public domain very soon
- Draft bill is quite old and requires some changes. Things need to be brought under its purview and work is on to accomplish this
- While regulations for surrogacy were also part of the overarching ART Bill, surrogacy was hived off and a separate legislation was framed for it
- Union Cabinet approved the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2016 imposing a ban on commercial surrogacy while allowing altruistic surrogacy where only close relatives can be surrogate mothers for Indian couples
- Infertility in India is on the rise on account of erratic modern lifestyles and late marriages
- Increasing number of couples are opting for ART
- There are serious concerns over the success rate of ART
- No official estimates or data on ARTs, sources in the government as well as industry say success rate of ART in India is not more than 20-30 percent.
