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Sweta Pahari   12 August 2015

Are non-married Indians eligible for sperm/ovum donation?

Dear all,

 

I wish to know whether it is legal in India for a non-married (i.e. never-married, widowed, separated or divorced) man or woman to donate his/her sperm or ovum in sperm-banks or ovum-banks in India, to be used by infertile couple(s) for procreation of child?

 

Some people say only legally married people in India are eligible for sperm or ovum donation, that too on providing written consent of their spouse and only after they become parents of at least one healthy child. However, in some Bollywood movies we have seen unmarried man donating their sperms. Are those movies superfluous?

 

Can anyone please disclose the actual Indian law (citing appropriate section and sub-section) in this regard?

 

 

Note: My query is not concerned with surrogacy. It only deals with legality of sperm/ovum donation by non-married Indians.



Learning

 12 Replies

ANAMIKA VICHARE (LAWYER)     12 August 2015

I donot think there is any problem, you can donate

 

G.L.N. Prasad (Retired employee.)     12 August 2015

But consult an advocate, and obtain an agreement that reduces entire conditions that the donor can not be held responsible for any parent hood and other rights in future, and safeguard your personal interests safe, and always donate through proper procedure through a lab, building up such evidences.

Prasad (Systems Engineer)     12 August 2015

 

On the ethical and natural side, a child should be born out of love between the wife and her husband.

 

So sad that many people are using this method to earn money.

 

A child is not a machine to be produced by donating sperms and ovums.

 

This is a injustice to the child born from donated items.

 

There are hundreds of thousands of ways of natural methods to get pregnant.

 

Why donate?

 

Else, the couple can consider adopting one of lakhs of orphans.

 

 

 

Sweta Pahari   14 August 2015

Learned experts,

 

As per your comments, sperm/ovum donation is "open to all" LEGALLY!! Prima-facie it seems so unbelievable, that too in our conservative Indian society!

 

In that case a married man or woman can easily label himself/herself as "separated" or "unmarried" and donate his/her sperm/ovum LEGALLY without spouse's written consent! Won't the law prohibit the concerned clinic from doing so? Won't they ask for any evidence of donor's marital status? If the answer is "No", why do people spend so much time and money to get a divorce decree? The party reluctant to stay with his spouse can easily donate his/her sperm/ovum at some clinic (so called 'bank') and produce an offspring outside marriage even if the learned court dismisses his/her divorce plea!.....The society would go astray. It seems so unbelievable to me....


Can anyone point out the exact section and sub-section from Indian law-books which documents this strange fallacy??

Sweta Pahari   16 August 2015

Dear learned members,

 

I am awaiting patiently for your expert opinions. Can anyone document the exact sperm/ovum donation laws prevailing in the country, citing appropriate section (and sub-section) of Indian law?

T. Kalaiselvan, Advocate (Advocate)     21 August 2015

What is your concern about it?, are you married  or not married?, Do you want to donate sperm to the sperm bank?, if so, approach one and give your details, they will let you know the eligibility conditions, if there are any, or it will be simply accepted. 

G.L.N. Prasad (Retired employee.)     21 August 2015

If it is through sperm bank, they have got lot of conditions and the main one being "donors name is strictly confidential" but it appears that he wanted to donate to specific family and only wanted laid down law, and only experts can say whether there was any law of such donation from specific person and the duties and responsibilities of both the parties.

Sweta Pahari   13 September 2015

.

advocatepassy@gmail.com 971794 (Advocate)     17 September 2015

Yes married or unmarried can donate sperms

 

"The donors are financially compensated for their time and generosity and their mandatory

reproductive health screening is done free of cost. Another critically important factor for

BabyQuest Cryobank is the privacy and confidentiality of information. As recommended by

the ICMR, the donor and recipient information will be completely protected," said Mr.

Shashikant Mohane, COO of BabyQuest CryoBank.

For further information please visit: www.babyquest.in

Dilip Patil, Managing Director, spermbank@babyquest.in, +91-9821018002, BabyQuest CryoBank

Pvt. Ltd.

SMS BQ to 56677 or call us on 022-25681111

Sweta Pahari   20 October 2015

Dear all,

 

In a bid to clear my confusion, I personally contacted some infertility clinics and ART (Artificial Reproductive Techniques) 'banks' in the last few days. The revelations I came across have stunned me. I am shocked by the incredible gender bias prevalent w.r.t the sperm and ovum donation laws in the country.

 

According to the codes of ethics laid down by the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research), a woman is eligible for ovum donation only on satisfying ALL of the below criteria:

 

1. She must be within 35 years of age.

2. She must be married. Some clinics said submitting written consent of her present husband is mandatory, while other clinics waived off that criteria.

3. She must be the biological mother of at least one healthy child. All clinics said evidence of her "proven fertility" is mandatory. They said they can't rely on a childless lady for ovum donation (even if all her medical and hormonal reports are excellent).

4. A woman can't donate eggs for more than 6 times in her entire lifetime.

 

 

Criteria for sperm donors:

 

1. Age no bar (21+).

2. Marital status no bar. Even college-goers are eligible to earn bucks by donating sperms without their parents' consent. Similarly 80-year old grandpa is also eligible for sperm donation without his wife's consent! Men don't need written/verbal consent of their spouse/parents since marital status is no bar here.

3. Fatherhood no bar. Men don't need to "prove" their fertility. They are considered "potent by default"!! So even a childless (read impotent/poorly potent) man is eligible for sperm donation!!

4. A man is eligible to donate his sperms upto 75 times in his lifetime (God knows who will keep their track if they donate in different ART banks).

 

 

Dear male readers,

What will you say now? Indian Law still favours the women?

Sweta Pahari   20 October 2015

Originally posted by : T. Kalaiselvan, Advocate
What is your concern about it?

Dear Adv Kalaiselvan,

 

Read my concerns regarding sperm donation below:

 

1. It paves the way for social and ethical issues, if done without the spouse or guardians' consent. Consider the agony in an old lady's mind when she comes to know that her 80-year old husband has fathered a child by sperm donation without her consent!! And the law is fully supporting her husband!

 

 

2. Only serves the purpose of unmarried, uneducated and unemployed men: Statistics show that more-often-than-not, unmarried, uneducated and unemployed men go for sperm donation, some with the sole intention to earn some bucks (financial remuneraion), others with the intention to preserve their DNA/genes in form of a child since they themselves could never marry and produce a legal child due to their unemployment/broken marriage/lifelong bachelorhood etc. IT SERVES THE PURPOSE OF GAY PEOPLE TOO TO PRESERVE THEIR GENES!! A highly established man happily married with kids will never go for sperm donation.

 

 

3. Higher chance of ailments in non-married men: Many men can never get married (or end up in divorce) due to some physical or mental ailments like stammering, asthma, schizophrenia, psoriasis, neurological problems, epilepsy and scores of other hidden ailments. However sperm count of such men remains unaffected, but they carry the genes of such hereditary diseases. It is impossible for the sperm banks to detect the presence of such ailments in a sperm donor unless he spontaneously discloses those (which no donor does). Thus chances of hidden ailments are much more in non-married sperm donors (unmarried and divorce included) than in married donors.

 

 

In short, it is very risky from medical (genetic quality) point of view to allow non-married men for sperm donation. Similarly it is totally unethical from social point of view to allow a man to donate sperm without his wife or parents' consent.

 

The eligibility criteria prevalent in India for egg donation is absolutely perfect and the same should ideally be applied for sperm donors too.

 


(Guest)
Originally posted by : Sweta Pahari
Dear all,

 

In a bid to clear my confusion, I personally contacted some infertility clinics and ART (Artificial Reproductive Techniques) 'banks' in the last few days. The revelations I came across have stunned me. I am shocked by the incredible gender bias prevalent w.r.t the sperm and ovum donation laws in the country.

 

According to the codes of ethics laid down by the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research), a woman is eligible for ovum donation only on satisfying ALL of the below criteria:

 

1. She must be within 35 years of age.

2. She must be married. Some clinics said submitting written consent of her present husband is mandatory, while other clinics waived off that criteria.

3. She must be the biological mother of at least one healthy child. All clinics said evidence of her "proven fertility" is mandatory. They said they can't rely on a childless lady for ovum donation (even if all her medical and hormonal reports are excellent).

4. A woman can't donate eggs for more than 6 times in her entire lifetime.

 

 

Criteria for sperm donors:

 

1. Age no bar (21+).

2. Marital status no bar. Even college-goers are eligible to earn bucks by donating sperms without their parents' consent. Similarly 80-year old grandpa is also eligible for sperm donation without his wife's consent! Men don't need written/verbal consent of their spouse/parents since marital status is no bar here.

3. Fatherhood no bar. Men don't need to "prove" their fertility. They are considered "potent by default"!! So even a childless (read impotent/poorly potent) man is eligible for sperm donation!!

4. A man is eligible to donate his sperms upto 75 times in his lifetime (God knows who will keep their track if they donate in different ART banks).

 

 

Dear male readers,

What will you say now? Indian Law still favours the women?

Yes, males have upper hand here.  No shame in accepting this fact.  And for your questions regarding why about women, just go through following links.  Women come will lesser shelf life, thats all, no further reasons madam, and dont feel offended.

 

https://www.diversityfertilityservices.com/facts-about-egg-donation.html

 

https://www.womens-health.co.uk/egg_age.html

 

https://www.womens-health.co.uk/egg_age1.html

 

But women have all the other tools like 498a, DV, 125 crpc etc etc etc, hope those can compensate !


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