Resolving Statelessness Arising out of Surrogacy in India: A Legal Analysis
![handle is hein.journals/isilyrbk13 and id is 182 raw text is:
RESOLVING STATELESSNESS ARISING OUT
OF SURROGACY IN INDIA: A LEGAL
ANALYSIS
SANOJ RAJAN*
I. INTRODUCTION
International surrogacy induced statelessness is a comparatively
new phenomenon that emerged because of advancement in Artificial
Reproductive Technology. Most births of children conceived through
medically assisted reproductive techniques do not cause special
problems in the field of nationality laws.' However, in cases of
international surrogacy arrangements, there is a grave risk of
statelessness for children if the states of the surrogate mother and
the commissioning parents do not attribute nationality to the
children because of the various reasons discussed in this article.
Surrogacy as a matter of fact, is highly regulated or actively
discouraged by law or regulatory bodies in most countries. The
objectives of restrictive laws are to avoid exploitation of vulnerable
women and children, prevent trafficking of women and newborns,
circumvention of international adoption protocols and in some cases
prevention of statelessness among children thus born. However,
Indian legal system is not very proactive so far in looking at the
issue on statelessness angle, though attempt has been made to
regulate surrogacy as a medical procedure and industry.2 Studies
estimate that surrogate mothers have given birth to more than 25,000
children in India alone, and about half of these children now live in
* Masters in Human Rights (Oxford), LLM, Ph.D., Professor and Dean, School of Law, Ansal
University, India and Affiliate, HHI, Harvard University, USA.
1 Gerard-Rene De Groot, Children, their Right to a Nationality and Child Statelessness in
Alice Edwards, Laura Van Waas (eds), Nationality and Statelessness under International
Law (Cambridge University Press, 2014), p. 165.
2 Nirmal K. Ganguly, Preface to Indian Council of Med. Research & Nat'l Acad. of Med. Sci.,
National Guidelines for Accreditation, Supervision, and Regulation of Art Clinics in India, at
xii (2005) [ART Guidelines], <http://www.icmr.nic.in/art/artclinics.htm> accessed on 10
March 2016.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/isilyrbk13&div=10&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Resolving Statelessness Arising out of Surrogacy in India: A Legal Analysis
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most