Okay to deny reproductive tech to live-in, same-sex couples: Panel

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 19

In a move with far-reaching ramifications for gender justice and LGBTQ rights, the parliamentary committee on health on Friday said it was correct on the part of the government to exclude live-in and same-sex couples from availing the benefits of assisted reproductive technologies to have children in the event of infertility.

In its report to Parliament on the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill, 2020, today, the committee said, “Given the Indian family structure and social milieu and norms, it will not be very easy to accept a child whose parents are together, but not legally married. We feel that keeping the best interest of that child born through ART services and other parentage issues in case of their separation, it would not be appropriate to allow live-in couples and same-sex couples to avail the facility of ART.”

In saying so, the panel endorsed the government’s definition of a couple commissioning ART service as “infertile married couple”. Earlier, the government had similarly excluded live-in and same-sex couples from the ambit of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019.

The ART Bill, 2020, makes no groundbreaking distinction even though the parliamentary panel says it took into account the SC order decriminalising same-sex relationships. Endorsing the Bill, the parliamentary panel, however, differed with the government, which has excluded people with genetic disorders from the ambit of ART Bill.

“Consider incorporating the provision of ART services to individuals with any medical condition, including genetic disorders,” the panel says, while leaving out same-sex and live-in couples noting, “Though the SC decriminalised same-sex relations, it did not introduce any special provisions or grant any additional rights to same-sex couples. The same applies for people who are in live-in relationships.”

The ART Bill seeks to regulate all forms of assisted reproductive technologies, barring surrogacy, which has been covered by a separate law.

It will create a National Advisory Board and state-level boards apart from a national registry for accreditation, and supervision of all ART clinics that offer services like gamete donation, intrauterine insemination (IUI), in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), intracytoplasmic sperm injection and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). The sector has been operating in a regulatory vacuum leading to unethical practices.

Bill to modify list of SCs in TN passed

The Lok Sabha on Friday passed the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which seeks to modify the list of Scheduled Castes in Tamil Nadu by grouping seven castes that currently exist as separate castes under one nomenclature of “Devendrakula Vellalars”. Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Thawar Chand Gehlot called the change in nomenclature a long-pending demand of the community. TNS