Legal and Ethical Dimensions of Artificial Reproduction and Related Rights (original) (raw)

Curious Case of ‘Reproductive Rights’: Indian and International Perspective

This research paper deals with host of issues, in particular matters concerning 'international framework qua right to procreate'. This paper comprises of five parts. Part I, deals with the 'Introduction', particularly explaining as to how 'right to procreate' draws impetus from the 'right to marry', and issues concerning presumption of marriage and legitimacy of children. Part II, deals with the international framework qua the right to procreate (the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 1979; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1966; the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, 1950; the 1994 Cairo Programme of Action; the Beijing Conference of 1995; the Maternity Protection Convention, 2000; and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2006). Part III, deals with the explorative study qua 'reproductive rights' albeit Indian Scenario and International Practice (Procreation and Right to Health; Procreation and Sterilization; Right to Procreate vide the Surrogacy Route; Procreation, Surrogacy, Child Care Leave and Maternity Benefits; Procreation and Right to Privacy; Procreation and Right to Personal Liberty; Procreation and Mental Retardation). Part IV, deals with right to procreate vis-à-vis incarceration. Part V, deals with the conclusion, post deliberating upon three matters of grave importance: the Purvi Patel Case (Indiana State of U.S.); the Lakshmi Dhikta Case (Nepal); and Right to Procreate qua Trans-genders (Yogyakarta Principles).

Assisted Reproductive Technique (Regulation) Bill 2016: Impact on the Abuse of Human Rights in India

Surrogacy allows a woman to legally carry someone else's child, but the desperation for a biological child has unfortunately turned the altruistic approach into commercial surrogacy. Prior to 2016, the absence of specific legal provisions to regulate commercial surrogacy in India along with a ban on such practices by most of the developing countries had led to the proliferation of the surrogate business in India. Perhaps the draft Assisted Reproductive Technique (Regulation) Bill 2005, The Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act (ITPA), 1956 and Sections 366(A) and 372 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, were the only existing laws on the subject, but they were not sufficient in dealing with the emerging dimensions of commercial surrogacy, i.e., vicious violation of human rights. With the introduction of ART (Regulation) Bill 2016, it needs to be probed whether its implementation has made it ethical on the one hand as intended and helped to curb this unethical and inhuman practice on the other in the current scenario.

Assisted Reproductive Techniques Ethical and Legal Issues

2012

The rapid advancements in sciences have revolutionized modern medicine in a number of ways; genetic engineering, Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART), human cloning, stem cells etc. has opened up the unimagined and promise unquestionable and undreamed benefits to mankind. At the same time, they raise many questions of law and ethical issues relating to public interest, social and religious sentiments and family concern. Although ethical judgments may indeed express personal preferences and may be connected in complicated ways with cultural conventions, ethics itself is a form of rational inquiry that concerns how we should live and what we should do. Some ethical issues are matters of debate. The Delhi Government has promulgated legislation in this regard which is cited as “The Delhi artificial insemination (Human) Bill 1995. The Indian Council for Medical Research has laid down certain guidelines for clinics practicing of assisted reproductive techniques and handling of surroga...

Reproductive technologies and reproductive rights

Reproductive technologies and reproductive rights, 2014

We observe a modern approach that allows for the possibility of a planned separation between sexual relations and procreation. The widespread use of contraceptives created the possibility of sex without reproduction, just as reproductive technologies created the possibility of reproduction without sex. Consequentially, the individual`s ability to control and plan childbirth has expanded, but parallel possibilities have been created for societal intervention in that process. The question whether society may limit one`s right to be a parent through the use of reproductive technologies has become a crucial legal issue. Artificial techniques of procreation present a special problem. On the one hand, we are concerned with planning the birth of a child and not with establishing what is best for a child already born. On the other hand, it is not a matter that begins and ends in the bedroom. Moreover: persons requiring artificial techniques expect not merely non-intervention but positive aid. It is submitted that a distinction should be drawn between limiting a person`s freedom to realize his right to parenthood as he sees fit, and the denying societal aid. The limits of positive societal aid are established through the changes in the legal definition of parenthood that society is willing to accept in order to meet individual desires. Thus, while we may question the existence of a justification for denying single woman`s freedom to procreate, or the freedom of a couple to seek the aid of a surrogate mother - that does not mean that society must provide the legal framework that might have the effect of denying parenthood to other partners to the procreative process.

Bioethics and Biopolitics: Presents and Futures of Reproduction

Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 2017

This Bioethics and Biopolitics: Presents and Futures of Reproduction symposium draws together a series of articles that were each submitted independently by their authors to the JBI and which explore the biopower axis in the externalization of reproduction in four contexts: artificial gestation (ectogenesis), preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for sex selection, women's (reproductive) rights, and testicular cryopreservation (TCCP). While one contribution explores a Bfuture^of reproduction, the other three explore a Bpresent,^or better, explore different Bpresents.^This article pulls together some reflections on the four papers and explores how what may count as Bpresent,^and what as Bfuture,ĉ hanges dramatically, depending on the geographic declination of the tense.

Renting the Womb-Commercial Surrogacy, Exploitation and India’s Legal Oversight

2021

With the advent of assisted reproductive technologies and in-vitro fertilization, a multibillion-dollar industry driven by demand was created where female bodies were used as factories to deliver quick products, in form of babies, unrelated to the humanness of it all. In third-world countries like India, the phenomenon was considered to be more exploitative due to the prevalence of surrogacy brokers who lured marginalized women with false promises of jobs and easy money and where lack of informed consent, poverty, and ignorance, worked as catalysts. Since 2002 when India legalized commercial surrogacy, it made way for a new form of economic well-being for many who preferred to become surrogates to tide over their economic conditions; yet, dark stories of human abuse contributing to near-death situations of surrogate mothers, neonatal and prenatal mortalities, and other human rights violations were revealed. In the absence of regulatory provisions, exploitations in the garb of surrogacy practices came to the fore. Multiple cases were reported where poor women were trafficked, traded, enslaved, raped, and forcefully made to conceive babies. The introduction of the ART Bill, 2014 and Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill of 2019 sought to ban the practice of commercial surrogacy. The article highlights the ethical and legal controversies that surround commercial gestational surrogacy and situates the discussion within the milieu of labor exploitation, trafficking, and other human rights abuses. Alongside, it talks about India's efforts to combat the menace based on international developments. The authors have undertaken a qualitative analytical approach to critically evaluate the issues concerning commercial surrogacy and its legal position. In conclusion, the authors indicate that though the Indian legislative attempts to curb the exploitative aspects of commercial surrogacy are well intended, it remains largely ineffective, especially in the context of human rights priorities of women and children.

Thinking through surrogacy legislation in India

, and in particular discusses some of its limitations using a relational conception of consent and autonomy. It is argued that two major limitations arise from, firstly, the way the Bill attempts to introduce 'universal' notions of informed consent into a cultural context of socially determined decisionmaking, resulting in the failure to safeguard the welfare of Indian surrogates. A second limitation is that the proposed law entitles only some poor women (surrogates) in India to realise access to quality medical healthcare services compared to others (poor, infertile women). Given the significant class and gender based inequalities which frame reproductive healthcare service delivery in the country, legally guaranteed access to health services for surrogates becomes a privilege where the rights of some individuals and couples to reproduce and exercise procreative agency is valued and not others. The article argues that the Bill must give due consideration to the complex, relational and highly stratified contexts in which women undertake childbearing in India to understand why legally comprehensive consent procedures can co-exist with violations of personhood in practice. Without such consideration the article suggests that injustice toward infertile women can become part of the same legal process wherein overcoming infertility is recognised as a right. v