Chennai: In the case related to a 16-year-old girl’s oocytes being sold illegally to private fertility clinics by her mother and stepfather and intermediaries, the Tamil Nadu government has found serious violations by six hospitals, including one each in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. A probe by the state has found that the child was passed off as a married adult by using forged documents, such as a fake Aadhaar, for harvesting her eggs.
Tamil Nadu health minister M Subramanian on Thursday said that the four hospitals in the state will be shut and that complaints have been forwarded to their counterparts in neighbouring Kerala and Andhra. The action was taken following a report submitted by a state-appointed enquiry committee headed by the joint director of medical and rural health services, Dr A Vishwanathan.
Authorities found these hospitals to be in violation of ART (Assisted Reproductive Technology) under ICMR Guidelines, Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994 and the Tamil Nadu Clinical Establishment Act.
The hospitals named are two branches of Sudha Hospital in Erode and Salem, Ramprasad Hospital in Perundurai, Vijay Srishti Fertility Centre in Hosur, Sree Krishna Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram and Mathrutva Fertility Center in Tirupati.
“Scan centres attached to these hospitals (the four in Tamil Nadu) will be closed with immediate effect. These hospitals must discharge all in-patients in the next 15 days,” the health minister said.
{{/usCountry}}“Scan centres attached to these hospitals (the four in Tamil Nadu) will be closed with immediate effect. These hospitals must discharge all in-patients in the next 15 days,” the health minister said.
{{/usCountry}}Two hospitals among these which provide the chief minister’s health insurance schemes for the poor will be removed from the state’s list. The minister added that the hospital did not arrange counsellors to advise about the pros and cons of egg donation and that the Aadhaar card was printed only on one side. “These doctors knew the card was fake. Some man who claimed to be her husband has signed the consent form. The nexus with commercial donors was clearly evident,” the minister said.
A statement from the health department said that joint directors have been asked to file cases against these hospitals in court and forward complaints against doctors to the state medical council.
Four arrests have been made in this case so far. In June, Erode district police had arrested the child’s mother and stepfather for taking her to private fertility centres to sell her oocytes. A woman intermediary who received ₹5000 as commission and another man who forged an Aadhaar card for changing the child’s name and date of birth were also arrested. Her mother and step father received ₹20,000 during each of the visits.
In her complaint, the child had said that she has been made to donate her harvested eggs eight times since 2017. The child has also complained that her stepfather has been sexually assaulting her for more than five years. “We have charged stepfather and the mother for abetting the repeated sexual asault under POCSO,” an investigating officer in Erode had earlier said.
Dr Meenakshi Jain, senior reproductive medicine specialist at Mathrutva Fertility Centre, Tirupati, told HT that the girl had misled the hospital for the sake of money. “We do accept eggs from donors for fertilisation and after bearing all procedural expenses, we pay ₹25,000 to ₹30,000 to them towards medical expenses. We don’t do any business with them,” she said.
Dr Jain said that the girl had produced a fake Aadhaar card showing her age as 24 years and donated her eggs. “She was with us for a couple of days. She said she has one child and had undergone miscarriage once. We have all the records about the treatment given to her. Let any investigation agency come and verify the same,” she said.
Dr Jain said she was not aware whether there were any middlemen in the whole issue. “But it appears she has gone to a few other hospitals and done similar donations for the sake of money. It seems to be a big racket,” she said.
In December 2021, the Lok Sabha passed the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill, 2020, to regulate assisted reproductive technology services, sperm and egg banks that have mushroomed across the country. The Bill seeks stringent punishment for those practicing sex selection, sale of human embryos or gametes, or found running agencies, rackets and organisations for such practices in violation of the law. It came to force in June and states that only a woman aged between 21 and 34 year who has given birth can donate eggs. “Even then it can be done only once,” the health minister said.
Earlier this month, this child, who is inside a government run children’s home threatened to die by suicide. Authorities said that she wanted to go back home to her relatives but since investigations are underway, her request was rejected. Police at that time said that she scared everyone saying that she drank Lysol but when they took her to the hospital they found that she hadn’t. They had arranged counselling for her later.