Church criticises draft bill legalising surrogacy

The Catholic Church in Kerala has criticised the draft Bill legalising surrogacy in India which if passed will allow single persons and unmarried couples to have children through surrogate mothers.

"We have an ancient traditional of very holy and stable family system and introduction of new technologies will destroy it," Fr Paul Thelekat, spokesman for Kerala bishops, said while criticising the bill.

"The new reproductive technology is against the moral teaching of the Catholic Church. The act basically questions the fundamentals of marriage and family life," he added.

According to sources, the Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) [Regulation] Bill will be tabled for discussion in the upcoming monsoon session of the Parliament. Although renting of womb is legal in India there has been no law so far to regulate surrogacy.

A 2009 Law Commission report had described ART industry as "a Rs 25,000-crore pot of gold". "Wombs in India are on rent which translates into babies for foreigners and dollars for Indian surrogate mothers," the report had stated.

Commercial surrogacy has been legal in India since 2002. The country is fast emerging as the 'surrogacy capital of the world' with a large number of women turning to be surrogates for childless foreign couples.

One of many reasons for India to emerge as a favourite destination for surrogacy is due to its reasonable price compared to those in UK and US.

If the draft bill becomes legislation it will make surrogacy even legal for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

Cardinal Mar Varkey Vithayathil, Major Archbishop of Syro Malabar Church, has strongly warned against the move.

"What is possible in science is neither in itself human or moral," he said. "We shall not play God and opt for fabrications of humans at our own designs."