Two Israeli gay men may have started a trend in India when they became the first known same-sex couple to ‘father’ children through a surrogacy programme in Mumbai. The gay couple have left the country with their twins, a boy and a girl, who were delivered this September at Hiranandani Hospital.

The couple learnt about the programme on the Net and contacted infertility specialist Dr Gautam Allahbadia of Rotunda Clinic, Centre for Human Reproduction. The programme helped them choose an Indian woman to donate the eggs, and a surrogate mother.

“In February, we performed the in vitro fertilisation procedure with sperm from one of the men and the donor’s egg. The embryo transfer was done on February 21,” Dr Allahbadia said. The couple stayed at the hospital for two months and, after the twins were born on September 17, returned to take them away.

Allahbadia said though many foreign couples came to India for surrogacy programmes, this was the first case involving a gay couple, and could become a trendsetter for other such couples.

Surrogacy programmes in India are currently regulated only by some guidelines the Indian Council of Medical Research framed in 2005. Minister Renuka Chowdhury has announced laws are coming to check possible exploitation of women in the ‘rent-a-womb’ business.