A draft bill, which aims to safeguard the rights of surrogate mothers and make parentage of such children legal, was on Wednesday cleared by the Union Cabinet. According to the Health Ministry proposal, the draft surrogacy bill, 2016 aims at regulating commissioning of surrogacy in the country in a proper manner. A Group of Ministers had recently cleared the bill and had referred it to the Union Cabinet for a final call. The bill was to be taken up by the Union Cabinet on April 27, 2016, but it was dropped from the agenda at the last moment. The government had recently said in Parliament that provisions are being made in the draft bill to make parentage of children born out of surrogacy “legal and transparent”.

Source: The Hindu August 24, 2016 08:55 UTC