Janak Raj Sapkota: Wombs for rent: Illegal surrogacy in Nepal

Wombs for rent: Illegal surrogacy in Nepal

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Surrogacy service flourishes in Kathmandu without any restriction

The business worth Rs 1.2 billion goes unchecked despite Supreme Court’s ruling to crack down surrogacy practices

: Janakraj Sapkota

The security presence in and around Baluwatar—the north-east part of Kathmandu—is relatively higher and tighter round-the-clock as it is an upscale residential area that includes the official residence of Prime Minister, Speaker of the Parliament, Chief Justice, diplomats and other VVIPs.

However, just opposite to the ‘Number 1’ gate of the Prime Minister Residence there is a narrow lane named ‘Dipkumari Marga’ that ends at a yellow-painted house.

A Mahindra Bolero van of black color carrying around half-dozen women stops in front of the house. Few more women hop the van from the house again. The van heads off toward Grande City Clinic and Diagnostic Services Pvt. Ltd—a hospital 3 kilometer far from Baluwatar—to drop these women to the hospital.

These are the women who are serving as surrogate mothers. The incident that this scribe of Nepal Magazine followed was of after nine days of order paased by the Supreme Court on August 25 to Nepal Government to halt the commercial surrogacy services.

The commercial surrogacy has flourished in Kathmandu following a decision of the cabinet meeting decision on September 20, 2014 to prepare a working procedure to allow the commercial surrogacy in the country. The decision has not only legalized the commercial surrogacy, but it also created a favorable environment to openly practice the surrogacy, which was otherwise operating in a covert way.

Many companies were formed in Nepal to provide commercial surrogacy services after the cabinet decision to legalize the service. However, the apex court has already issued ruling on August 25 to halt the implementation of the working procedure on providing commercial surrogacy. Following the ruling of the Supreme Court, Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) had also issued a public notice on September 8 that banned the surrogacy services. The MoHP had also dispatched letters on September 8 to the hospitals that are offering medical services to the surrogate mothers instructing them to not provide surrogacy services.

However, the surrogacy services have not stopped yet despite a legal ban by the ministry and the Supreme Court.

Medial Tourism Nepal (MTN) is one among the companies that offer commercial surrogacy services to the foreigners in Nepal. In response to a pseudonym email from this scribe guised as a service seeker, MTN’s representative Arpana said that the company was ready to provide the surrogacy service. She also sent the price quotation for the services as well as process associated with the service that the company provides.

While the record at the Office of Company Registrar (OCR) shows the company address is Dhapasi-6 in Kathmandu, it is located at the second floor of the Times Square Building at Kingsway, which is considered at the heart of the capital city. The company with an authorized capital of Rs 2.5 million (25,000 US Dollar) has stated Sajib Singh Rajput as the board director of the company in its filing to the OCR.

Though the company is registered under the name of Sanjib, it is actually operated by Indian citizen named Bishal, according to a source. Around half dozen staff in the company are found busy on escorting the surrogate mother to the hospital, arranging them food and shelter and processing the document of the foreigners with their newly born children to return to their countries.

Illegal business

MTN was registered in the OCR on July 17, 2014 under the tourism business while there was a lack of clear legal framework regarding the surrogacy services. However, the prospectus filed with the OCR shows that it has an objective to bring the foreigners in Nepal who want to have their child from the surrogate.

According to Shant Bahadur Shrestha, Secretary at MoHP, though the company managed to get registered for the surrogacy services, the practice is not legal in Nepal. “Getting permission of registration of the company does not mean that it can conduct services that are prohibited by the law,” says Shrestha.

However, the impact of the ruling of the court and the directive of the MoHP has been nil to these companies. The operators of these companies, however, argue that the practice is legal as they have been licensed by the company registrar office to provide such services.

“International surrogacy in Nepal is legal. The decision of the cabinet last year has paved the legal way for the commercial surrogacy,” says Rup Jyoti—chairman of Grande City Clinic and Diagnostic Services Pvt. Ltd.

MoHP Secretary, however, refutes the claim of Jyoti. According to Shrestha, the cabinet decision had only decided to formulate a working procedure on the surrogacy service rather than allowing operation of the services. “You cannot say that the practice is legal based on some legal loopholes and the cabinet decision to formulate the procedure. If any company is providing such services, it is totally illegal,” says Shrestha.

There are a dozen surrogacy providing companies in Kathmandu alone who mostly brings Indian women for the surrogacy. According to the operators of the surrogacy, it cost nearly Rs 4 million ($ 40,000) for foreigner to have a baby born in Nepal as per the surrogacy service. According to a data of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)—a national investigation agency for investigation and collection of criminal intelligence information, there are a total of 300 surrogate pregnant Indian mothers who are currently in the midst of the surrogacy process. This amounts to Rs 1.2 billion ($ 12 million) currently if calculated in the monetary term. These women are housed at 13 houses of Tokha, Baluwatar and Sanepa in Kathmandu. Most of these companies have also their international network, while some bring clients and Indian women for the surrogacy through their branch offices or agents in India.

The surrogacy practice that began from the US some 27 years ago has also made it to Nepal through India. Though there is no clear legal arrangement in Nepal in regard to this service, this is in practice in a hidden way for past few years.

However, the recent ruling of the apex court against the surrogacy practice has not only dragged this service into a controversy, but it also put a question mark on the the future of the overall business.

The ruling has also thrown the future of the surrogate mother, the would-born babies and their parents into a limbo. The MoHP and the Supreme Court have remained silent on this issue so far. “I cannot speak about the fate of the current surrogate mother, would-born babies and the parents until the government do not introduce a clear law about the practice,” says MoHP Secretary Shrestha.

International Dynamic

The high court of India on February 25 this year has asked its central government to impose a ban on the commercial surrogacy services. India decided to pursue a stricter policy on the surrogacy services after noticing that many foreign couples and transgender foreign citizens were entering India under ‘tourist visa’ to get baby through surrogate mothers. The Indian government policy to allow surrogacy service to the foreign couples who come under the ‘surrogacy visa’ only squeezed the business of the surrogacy in India. It also introduced a long and complex process for the surrogacy services. The stricter policy in India prompted an expansion of the surrogacy market in Nepal which shares open borders with India.

Following Nepal’s apex court ruling against the surrogacy service, Australia issued a travel advisory to its citizens the same week to advise them to refrain from travelling Nepal for the surrogacy services citing the ban from the court.

Similarly, the US Embassy in Kathmandu has also issued an alert to its citizen about the legal uncertainties of the surrogacy practices in Nepal. “At the present time, Nepali law does not recognize surrogacy. Accordingly, surrogacy contracts are not enforceable in Nepal. However, the Government of Nepal has expressed the intention of introducing guidelines which would make surrogacy legal for foreigners,” reads the notice of the US embassy posted in its website. “Until those guidelines are adopted, legal uncertainty remains, particularly with respect to documenting children born through surrogacy, and with respect to obtaining exit permits for such children to leave the country,” the statement adds.

Israeli and Australian citizens are in the top of the list among various nationalities that come to Nepal to get babies from the surrogate mother. An Australian news portal www.news.com.au said that ‘there are between 60 and 80 desperate Australian couples currently have Nepalese surrogates pregnant with their children’, quoting Surrogacy Australia founder Sam Everingham.

These parents have reportedly sought information and update about the surrogacy operation from the Australian embassy based in Kathmandu. According to a source, the Australian High Commission based in New Delhi has also expressed its concern about the surrogacy services in Nepal and the status of its citizens who are awaiting the babies. The Australian Embassy did not respond the email of Nepal Magazine. “The embassy does not want to make comment in this issue,” says Krishna Karki, a communication representative of the embassy.

Process of surrogacy services in Nepal

A similarity between various surrogacy service providers in Nepal is that they prefer single men who are either bachelor or widower, and transgender couple. The agents of these service providers themselves send sperm or egg required for the fertility themselves search from their choice of caste, community or creed and transfer to Nepal ‘freezing’ it. Agents in India of these service providers find out aspiring women to become a surrogate. The couples come to Nepal following an agreement between them and the agency. Procedures such as In vitro fertilization (IVF), arrangement of food and shelter to the surrogate mothers and regular medical treatment are the responsibilities of surrogate agencies in Kathmandu. The Indian women who are hired as surrogate mothers with a payment ranging from Rs 400,000 to Rs 500,000 ($ 4000- $ 5000) are housed in the rented apartments in various places in Kathmandu. As many as 50 surrogate women are housed in a single apartment. Some of these surrogates are also living with their family members.

Jasodha Ghosh, 25-year-old, is one among the Indian surrogate who are carrying babies for the foreigners. Ghosh says she accepted the proposal to become a surrogate to get out of the poverty and deprivation. She wants to buy a small plot of land and build a home from Rs 300,000 that she fetched after delivering a baby for a man. Ghosh, who is originally 6-hour far from Calcutta in India, was living in a rented home in New Delhi with her husband and two daughters. She came to knew about the offer of surrogate when she was finding it extremely difficult to make living from the work of a cleaner on meager Indian Rs 5000 ($ 80) monthly. Ghosh came to Kathmandu through one of a contact person working as agent. “Rs 300,000 sound like a big amount. However, it does not take much time to spend it. However, this amount can meet some of my expectations back in India,” says Ghosh, whose husband works as rickshaw puller. According to Ghosh, her husband has agreed to allow her to carry a baby for an unknown man. “He accepted when he heard that this job will fetch us Rs 300, 000,” she says.

Frozen Egg Banks and Sperm Banks are eyeing Nepal after the market is gradually emerging here. According to a source, women from India frequently used to approach the Grande International in Kathmandu for the ovum donation. Clients of surrogacy used to choose the ovum looking after the face, color and physical structure of the women.

After Grande City Clinic started offering modern technology services for the surrogacy, freezing ovum are entering into the market from the foreign banks. Knowledgeable sources say that ovum donor from the US charges as much as $10,000 while it cost $ 8,000 in Israel. These days foreign surrogacy agency itself transfers ovum as sought by the service seekers to Nepali hospital. Such ‘freezing’ ovum can be used for many months.

New Life Nepal, one of the surrogacy service providers, is offering the ovum of Nepal women. The company boasts about this service in its own website. According to its website, Nepali women from diverse backgrounds are beautiful and their ovum can be sent to various countries.

Surrogacy Nepal, another surrogacy service provider, says it provides ovum for the surrogacy of Caucasian, African, European and Asian women. Medical Tourism Nepal, however, buys ovum from Indian agencies. In an email response to the pseudo email sent by this scribe, it says: “We can provide ovum of Caucasian and African women from our agencies based in India whose cost ranges from $ 13,000 to $ 30,000.”

Other related reporting in Nepali language is here:

http://kantipur.ekantipur.com/printedition/news/2015-09-19/20150919093332.html

http://nepal.ekantipur.com/news/2015-09-13/20150913172008.html

http://nepal.ekantipur.com/news/2015-09-13/20150913154719.html

Here is the impact of my Investigative reporting on surrogacy :

http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/news/2015-09-18/cabinet-revokes-decision-to-allow-surrogacy-service.html

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Janak Raj Sapkota

Wombs for rent: Illegal surrogacy in Nepal

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