The Curious Case of Baby Manji

When does a baby cease to be a bundle of joy and becomes a diplomatic nightmare, with
the Supreme Court having to intervene? Baby Manji's birth in July 2008 made headlines
and is possibly responsible for at least some of the amendments made in 2010 to the
India's Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) (Regulation) Bill. As this issue's cover
story, IVF in India: The Story So Far... revisits this contentious debate, Baby Manji's
case is an epitome of what can go wrong.
Baby Manji's story starts out innocuously enough with a Japanese couple, both doctors
themselves, getting into a surrogacy contract with a young married woman in a small
town in Gujarat, through a gynecologist. In hindsight, a clause in the contract stating
that the husband would care for the child if the couple separated should have raised
concerns but went unnoticed at the time.
These facts of the case are common knowledge by now: created from the sperm of
orthopaedic surgeon Ikufumi Yamada, and an egg from an unknown (reportedly an
Indian or Nepali) woman, the embryo was implanted into the surrogate's womb who
carried the pregnancy to full term and gave birth to a healthy baby girl. But, by then, the
couple had separated and Baby Manji was both parentless and stateless, caught between
the legal systems of two countries!
The surrogacy contract itself was silent on parental responsibilities: of the two
contracting parents, the surrogate as well as the anonymous egg donor. While the
biological father wanted to claim the baby, he was prevented by a legal system which
had no provision for children born via surrogacy. After a prolonged legal battle, Ikufumi
Yamada's mother, (who had come to India to look after the child she considered her
grandchild, after her son's Indian visa expired,) left for Japan with Baby Manji, but not
before an NGO had accused the father of child trafficking.
Baby Manji was born well after the Indian Council for Medical Research had released
guidelines for ART clinics but since they were voluntary, they had no standing. Three
years after Baby Manji was born, there are still more questions than answers. The draft
ART Bill which is being examined by the Union Cabinet with the view of making it a law,
has made landmark suggestions with a view to streamlining the process.
But concerns do arise on the Indian government's thrust to 'streamline' assisted
reproduction. India's image as the 'surrogacy capital of the world' has spawned a
thriving industry, and the law of the market is that when demand is more, supply will
increase. Once it is made law, will the ART Bill simply be legalising what has been
dubbed as 'rent-a-womb' industry?
Of course, not having any law on this issue today seems to be the greater evil. Most
importantly, the law should protect the rights of children born via surrogacy by clearly
defining parental responsibilities as well as providing monetary support to the surrogate
child, should the parents back away from claiming the child due to divorce or any other
reasons. India has proved that we have the logistic and medical capacity to be a
preferred surrogacy destination, but now we have to prove our ethical and humane
capacity to protect the rights of future generations of the likes of Baby Manjis.