Surrogacy rules changed to allow donor gamete for couples with medical condition

This comes after the Supreme Court last year allowed a woman with Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser (MRKH) Syndrome — a rare congenital disorder that affects the reproductive system and can cause infertility — to undergo surrogacy with a donor egg.

The rule necessitating that both the egg and the sperm come from the “intending couple” was introduced in 2023. Prior to that, the rules allowed for donation of eggs but not the sperm.

Health experts welcomed the move as many women undergoing surrogacy may be older — the number and quality of egg declines with age. “While very few people need surrogacy — it is only meant for those who do not have a uterus, have a damaged uterus, or have a thin uterine lining — among those who do, the women are likely to be older, having tried other methods of getting pregnant before considering surrogacy. This is the reason some of them would need a donor egg; this is a very positive decision,” said Dr Anjali Malpani, an IVF specialist from Mumbai.

“Sperm donations are hardly needed these days, with techniques where the sperm can directly be taken from the testicles and injected directly into the egg,” she said.

The rule change, however, is not applicable for widowed or divorced women. It reads: “Single woman (widow or divorcee) undergoing surrogacy must use self eggs and donor sperms to avail surrogacy procedure.”

A 44-year-old unmarried woman wanting to undergo surrogacy challenged not only the provisions of the Surrogacy Regulation Act that do not allow the procedure for single women, but also the fact that “single women” as per the Act also need to use their own eggs.

The woman’s counsel argued that her client could not get married earlier in her life and now wants to have a child through surrogacy but because of her age, it is medically not advisable to use her own gametes.

Dr Malpani said: “There are many single women who want to have children and it should be allowed.”