E-Paper
Delhi HC seeks Centre’s reply on plea challenging embryo adoption ban
The Delhi High Court is reviewing a petition challenging a law that bans embryo adoption, arguing it discriminates against infertile couples.
The Delhi high court on Wednesday issued notice in a petition challenging the law that imposes a blanket ban on embryo adoption in India.
Embryo adoption is a process in which a cryopreserved embryo created through in vitro fertilisation (IVF) by one couple is voluntarily donated to another woman or couple for gestation and childbirth.
Sections 25(2), 27(5), 28(2) of the law in question, the Assisted Reproductive Technology Act, prohibit altruistic, voluntary and consent-based donations of pre-existing frozen embryos for adoption by another infertile couple.
Additionally, Rule 13(1)(a) of the Assisted Reproductive Technologies (Regulation) Rules, 2022, excludes the possibility of embryo adoption by third parties by requiring ART clinics to preserve all unused gametes or embryos solely for the same recipient, prohibiting their use by any other person.
A bench of chief justice DK Upadhyaya and justice Tejas Karia sought the Centre’s stand in a petition filed by IVF specialist Dr Aniruddha Narayan Malpani and fixed April 17 as the next date of hearing.
In the petition, argued by senior advocate Maneka Goswami and advocate Mohini Priya, Dr Malpani contended that the bar led to unequal and discriminatory treatment between similarly placed infertile couples, those permitted to access double donor IVF and those denied the option of embryo adoption.
To be sure, double donor IVF is a form of in-vitro fertilisation in which both the egg and the sperm come from donors, rather than from either intended parent.
The petition further stated that such a prohibition also created an arbitrary and constitutionally untenable distinction between embryos created for IVF using double donor gametes and pre-existing embryos donated voluntarily under regulatory safeguards.
“The impugned prohibition on altruistic embryo donation creates an irrational and constitutionally impermissible classification between altruistic sperm and egg donation, including double donor gamete IVF and altruistic donation of a cryopreserved embryo, which is effectively barred without any intelligible differentia,” the petition stated.
It added that such a treatment was not only violative of the fundamental right to equality but also the right to privacy, dignity and reproductive autonomy.
