Foreign minister and External affairs minister of India Sushma Swaraj got a chance to defend the Centre recently passing tougher surrogacy laws

The minister highlighted a British couple’s plight to underscore why she’s against commercial surrogacy.

Chris and Michele Newman, who had a daughter through surrogacy, have been unable to get a British passport for her. It will apparently take months to arrive. At the same time, they haven’t been able to extend their own India visa, and have to leave the country on October 7. So now they face the prospect of leaving behind their infant daughter Lily.

“Orphanage is not an option for Lily. We will help you with your visa extension papers,” Ms Swaraj tweeted, bringing relief to Chris and Michele Newman.

Will the advocates of commercial surrogacy suggest a solution and help this Baby ? Pl RThttps://t.co/OCVyNSSs4Y

— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) September 13, 2016

Story Behind Lily

UK citizens Chris and Michele Newman, who had a daughter through surrogacy in India named her Lily. Lily is now 3.5 months old, but hasn’t got her travel documents. The Newmans, who are in Mumbai on an extended medical visa had applied for her passport on June 3.

UK says it needs to “needs to ensure that the child has a claim to British nationality, that surrogacy laws are adhered to, and that the child’s best interests are protected”. A statement from its home office further said a passport will not be issued “until all checks have been satisfactorily completed”.

The Newmans’ visa expires on October 7 and the UK foreign office has warned that all the formalities for Lily’s passport will not be completed by then.

“I did have to do something no father had to – I was pacing around at 3 am, looking at orphanages in the middle of Mumbai,” Chris Newman was quoted as telling BBC.

It is madness that UK Government and HMPO is so willing to safeguard  the well-being of a baby applicant to ensure that it hasn’t been trafficked, that it is happy for that child to be left without its parents in a foreign country with a complete stranger.” the couple from Surrey in England has written on a petition on change.org.

In a series of tweets, Ms Swaraj had taken up their case, asking, “Should orphanage be the destiny of a surrogate baby?” She also not only questioned the British authorities, but also took a swipe at those who criticised the government’s move towards tougher surrogacy laws.

“Should (an) orphanage be the destiny of a surrogate baby?” Swaraj tweeted, referring to a BBC report that carries the Newmans’ story.

“Will the advocates of commercial surrogacy suggest a solution and help this baby. Commercial surrogacy is banned in Britain. Will British Government give a British passport to this surrogate baby?” she further asked.

Surrogacy Bill 2016

The Centre passed the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016. The bill “proposes a complete ban on commercial surrogacy in the country and will allow only legally wedded Indian couples married for at least five years to have children through surrogacy. The bill also says that potential surrogate mothers can only be chosen from among “close relatives” of “authorized couples”.

The bill was a response to India emerging as a hub for surrogacy and concerns about the commercial exploitation of poor women who bear children for rich clients. Official sources estimate that there are 3,000 surrogacy clinics across the country and at least 2,000 surrogate births annually in India. The surrogacy business is estimated at Rs 900 crore in India.”We have already been told twice now by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that we should be prepared to leave Lily. It is madness that UK Government and HMPO (British passport office) is so willing to safeguard the well-being of a baby applicant to ensure that it hasn’t been trafficked, that it is happy for that child to be left without its parents in a foreign country with a complete stranger. Whilst I understand that checks have to done, I would also hope that common sense would prevail, after all a simple DNA test would prove that Chris is the biological father,” says the Newmans’ petition for a UK Emergency Travel Document on the website Change.org.

“We have already been told twice now by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that we should be prepared to leave Lily. It is madness that UK Government and HMPO (British passport office) is so willing to safeguard the well-being of a baby applicant to ensure that it hasn’t been trafficked, that it is happy for that child to be left without its parents in a foreign country with a complete stranger. Whilst I understand that checks have to done, I would also hope that common sense would prevail, after all a simple DNA test would prove that Chris is the biological father,” says the Newmans’ petition for a UK Emergency Travel Document on the website Change.org.

Whatever happens, the Newmans are probably among the last such couple to have a surrogate baby in India, because of the new tough laws against commercial surrogacy.

Junior Health Minister Anupriya Patel has launched a strong defence of new surrogacy bill

Junior Health Minister Anupriya Patel has launched a strong defence of the government’s controversial new Surrogacy Bill, saying women must use the many schemes initiated for their benefit by the Narendra Modi government instead of “selling their bodies to earn a livelihood.”

“What kind of families are these who are using women to earn easy money,” Ms Patel, the youngest member of PM Modi’s council of ministers said, “‘How many women in India can make their own choices? They are coerced.”

“The government wants to persuade surrogate women that selling bodies is not the only way to earn a livelihood,” she added.

The bill cleared by the union cabinet, bans what the government calls commercial surrogacy or the exchange of money for surrogacy. It provides that only “close relatives” can be used as surrogates and also bars newly married couples, NRIs and foreigners, and single and gay people from using surrogates to have babies.

Critics say couples desperate to have babies will be left with few options. Also, they say, the proposed law could lead to illegal an illegal industry going underground and drive out genuine couples to other countries like Thailand.

Anupriya Patel, 35 a graduate of Dehli’s famous Lady Shri Ram College, said surrogacy has “become an illegal industry of 2 billion dollars.”

Anupriya Patel, 35 a graduate of Dehli’s famous Lady Shri Ram College, said surrogacy has “become an illegal industry of 2 billion dollars.”

The new bill, she said, is aimed at ensuring that poor women are not exploited. “Are Indian women only made for this? Poor vulnerable tribal women are being exploited,” the minister said.

She defended barring single and gay people from having surrogate babies by saying, “A child needs a normal family, a mother and father. Live-in parents may separate.”

When pointed out that married couples may also separate or get divorced, the minister said society was still evolving on many issues.