Reproductive Autonomy In Question Mapping The Legal And Ethical Faultlines In India’s Surrogacy Law
- IJLLR Journal
- Jul 5
- 1 min read
A. Bhanu Priya, LL.M., M.Sc. (Psychology), Lecturer, J.C. College of Law, Guntur, India
ABSTRACT
India rethought its surrogacy laws in 2021 when it passed the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act. The law's stated goal of reducing reproductive labour exploitation and commercialisation begs the problems of reproductive autonomy, physical integrity, and the changing definition of motherhood. This essay takes a close look at the surrogacy laws in India and how they show the conflict between moral policing by the state and personal autonomy in reproductive decisions. Using precedents from landmark cases like Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India and other international human rights treaties, this article asks whether the rules as they stand are compatible with a rights-based approach. It delves deeper into the law's discriminatory character, analysing how it affects transnational intended parents, LGBTQ+ people, and unmarried women, and it criticises the state for supporting heteronormative family forms. A more inclusive, ethically balanced, and autonomy-respecting legal framework for surrogacy in India is proposed in this paper through a comparative study of worldwide best practices and an examination of developing international standards, such as those at the Hague Conference on Private International Law.
