New Delhi, Dec 1 (UNI) The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed a bill for the regulation of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) services in the country.
The Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill, 2020, which was introduced in Lok Sabha on September, 2020 and then sent to a standing committee for scrutiny, was passed through voice vote.
The Bill defines ART to include all techniques that seek to obtain a pregnancy by handling the sperm or the oocyte (immature egg cell) outside the human body and transferring the gamete or the embryo into the reproductive system of a woman. Examples of ART services include gamete (sperm or oocyte) donation, in-vitro-fertilisation (fertilising an egg in the lab), and gestational surrogacy (the child is not biologically related to surrogate mother).
ART services will be provided through - ART clinics, which offer ART related treatments and procedures, and through ART banks, which store and supply gametes.
The Bill provides that every ART clinic and bank must be registered under the National Registry of Banks and Clinics of India. The National Registry will be established under the Bill and will act as a central database with details of all ART clinics and banks in the country.
State governments will appoint registration authorities for facilitating the registration process. Clinics and banks will be registered only if they adhere to certain standards (specialised manpower, physical infrastructure, and diagnostic facilities). The registration will be valid for five years and can be renewed for a further five years. Registration may be cancelled or suspended if the entity contravenes the provisions of the Bill.
Speaker Om Birla, before taking up the Bill for passing, said the Bill refers to the Surrogacy act, which is still pending in Rajya Sabha. He said as per Rules, a bill which depends on another Bill or Act can be taken up only when the other Bill has been passed. He added that since the Surrogacy Bill has been passed in Lok Sabha, and the ART Bill does not depend on it entirely, the Bill can be passed by Lok Sabha.
Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said the ART covers the whole process involved in developing embryo in a lab and implanting it into a female, and the Bill was needed because there are several clinics that perform IVF, and need to be regulated.
As per the Bill, Screening of gamete donors, collection and storage of semen, and provision of oocyte donor can only be done by a registered ART bank. A bank can obtain semen from males between 21 and 55 years of age, and oocytes from females between 23 and 35 years of age.
An egg donor should be an "ever-married woman having at least one alive child of her own minimum three years of age", says the Bill. The woman can donate egg only once in her life and not more than seven eggs can be retrieved from her. A bank cannot supply gamete of a single donor to more than one couple seeking services.
ART procedures can only be carried out with the written informed consent of both the party seeking ART services as well as the donor.
The party seeking ART services will be required to provide insurance coverage in the favour of the egg donor, for any specified "loss, damage, complication or death of oocyte donor during the process of oocyte retrieval".
A clinic is prohibited from offering to provide a child of pre-determined sex. The Bill also requires checking for genetic diseases before the embryo implantation.
A child born through ART will be deemed to be a biological child of the commissioning couple and will be entitled to the rights and privileges available to a natural child of the commissioning couple. A donor will not have any parental rights over the child.
The Bill provides that the National and State Boards for Surrogacy constituted under the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019 will act as the National and State Board respectively for the regulation of ART services.
Abandoning, or exploiting children born through ART, selling, purchasing, trading, or importing human embryos or gametes, using intermediates to obtain donors, exploiting commissioning couple, woman, or the gamete donor in any form, and transferring the human embryo into a male or an animal are included as offences. These offences will be punishable with a fine between five and ten lakh rupees for the first contravention. For subsequent contraventions, these offences will be punishable with imprisonment for a term between eight and 12 years, and a fine between 10 and 20 lakh rupees.
No court will take cognisance of offences under the Bill, except on a complaint made by the National or State Board or any officer authorised by the Boards.
It also says any clinic or bank advertising or offering sex-selective ART will be punishable with imprisonment between five and ten years, or fine between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 25 lakh, or both.
UNI AO SHK2127