Nepal’s highest court has ordered an immediate halt to commercial surrogacy services there while it considers the legality of the practice.
According to the Supreme Court, which issued an injunction on foot of a petition brought before it for an outright ban, while there is no current legislation controlling surrogacy for monetary gain, the practices “raises many constitutional and legal questions” which had to be fully examined.
The injunction bars any new surrogacy for now, while leaving unaffected those commercial surrogacy arrangements already in train.
Nepal currently allows for foreign women to serve as surrogate mothers while barring locals.
The petition prompting the court’s action was brought by lawyer, Prabin Pandak, who argues that Nepalese women currently circumvent the surrogacy restriction by misrepresenting themselves as Indian. Meanwhile, on the broader issue of commercial surrogacy, Pandak said: “Women should not be a subject of trade, neither should a child.”
Nepal has become one of the top destinations for surrogacy services due to the fact that charges there for the service are lower than in western countries and following bans enacted in India and Thailand, previously much used surrogacy destinations.
Nepal’s surrogacy issue came to the fore when the country suffered a devastating earthquake in April. International media at the time focused on moves by Israeli couples to leave the country with their new infants, having travelled for surrogacy services. Israel bans surrogacy for same-sex couples, who subsequently aim for Nepal. The Centre for Surrogacy-Israel estimates that 100 Israeli couples pursue surrogacy in Nepal annually.
