Concept and History of Surrogacy in India
Surrogacy, a subset of the new bio market, has contributed to an uptick in reproductive tourism over the last two decades. The act of using a surrogate mother is not new. Women have traditionally been chosen to give birth on behalf of others. Recent increases in surrogacy may be attributed to developments in reproductive technology such in vitro fertilisation (IVF), a lessening of cultural biases, and a delay in having children. In the past two decades, it has spread all over the globe. To put it simply, surrogacy is when a woman gives birth on behalf of a couple who are unable to have children for biological reasons. Although the exact number of children born via surrogacy is unknown, but the approximately 25000 surrogate children are born in India every year under commercial surrogacy, including 50% were for foreign couples. The word "surrogate" is a Latin word "surrogatus," which means "a substitute." It is a kind of arrangement, where a woman agrees