Lok Sabha passes Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill, 2020

Context

The Lok Sabha has passed the Assisted Reproductive Technology- ART (Regulation) Bill, 2020 that proposes the establishment of a national registry and registration authority for all clinics and medical professionals serving in the field.

What is ART?

• Assisted reproductive technology (ART) is used to treat infertility. It includes fertility treatments that handle both a woman's egg and a man's sperm.
• 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)
  • gestational surrogacy (the child is not biologically related to surrogate mother)
• ART services will be provided through: (i) ART clinics, which offer ART related treatments and procedures, and (ii) ART banks, which store and supply gametes.

Key-highlights of the Bill

• Conditions for gamete donation and supply
  
  
• Only registered ART bank: Screening of gamete donors, collection and storage of semen, and provision of oocyte donors can only be done by a registered ART bank.
• Eligible age of donor: 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 oocyte donor should be an ever-married woman having at least one alive child of her own (minimum three years of age).
  • The woman can donate oocytes only once in her life and not more than seven oocytes can be retrieved from her.
• A bank cannot supply gamete of a single donor to more than one commissioning couple (couple seeking services).

Conditions for offering ART services

• Informed consent: ART procedures can only be carried out with the written informed consent of both the party seeking ART services as well as the donor.
• Insurance coverage: The party seeking ART services will be required to provide insurance coverage in the favour of the oocyte donor (for any loss, damage, or death of the donor).
• Checking genetic disease: The Bill also requires checking for genetic diseases before the embryo implantation.

Need of the Bill

• India today is a hub of the global fertility industry with medical tourists flocking to the country for a variety of services.
• The reproductive section of the Indian medical tourism business at more than $450 million in 2008, and predicted that it would grow to $6 billion a year within a decade.