A clinic draws a line

That’s when Reema’s mother decided to take the matter in her hands and, instead of a grandmother, chose to be a surrogate mother. Reema’s sister donated her ova and the egg was fertilised with sperm taken from Reema’s husband. The embryo was then implanted in 56-year-old Reema’s mother’s womb. She is now 14 weeks’ pregnant.

The entire family is staying in Pune for a year till Reema’s mother delivers the baby under the guidance of the Ruby Hall Clinic’s IVF centre.

With infertility rates pegged at 14-15 per cent in the country, IVF centres like Ruby Hall’s are common. However, Dr Sunita Tandulwadkar, Director of the IVF centre at Ruby Hall Clinic, draws a line when it comes to “providing” surrogate mothers for national or international couples.

“In most cases we advise the couple to appeal to their near and dear ones and who have had children. There is no law yet on this issue and if international couples find their own surrogate mothers, the Indian law cannot stop them,” says Tandulwadkar. So far Ruby Hall has helped 15 couples who have opted for surrogate mothers.

She gives the example of a 43-year-old librarian from Mumbai studying for a PhD, who cannot give up her studies for pregnancy. “The husband is equally supportive and will pay quite an amount for hiring a surrogate mother,” Dr Tandulwadkar says. “But I have denied the case simply because she does not have any medical ailment.”

Dr Kamini Rao, Director of the Indian Society for Assisted Reproduction, agrees with her. “Medical surrogacy is alright where the woman simply cannot conceive a child or there are medical problems due to which the couple seek help. However it is thumbs down for such couples who opt for surrogate mothers simply because they do not have the time to go through a full-term pregnancy,” she says.