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Couple moves Bombay HC for access to embryos frozen in US | Exclusive – India Today

A couple has moved the Bombay High Court seeking to import their embryos frozen in the US. The plea filed by senior advocate Niteen Pradhan states that the 43-year-old woman suffers from medical issues. Even though the couple wishes to become parents after 11 years of marriage, they are unable to do so.

The couple got married in the US in 2010 and lived there until 2019, when they moved back to India. While they lived in the US, they had cry preserved their 5 embryos there.

Medical issues

The plea states that the couple had tried to do In vitro fertilization (IVF) in 2014 at Thane. However, IVF failed. It was not just that one time. The couple has attached proof of a series of such failed attempts, including when the woman got pregnant but suffered a miscarriage.

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In 2017, the woman suffered partial paralysis and was also in a coma for a week and recovered, but to control epileptic seizures, she is on medicine for her life. The doctors have now advised her against getting pregnant. Since the embryos are preserved in the US, the couple is hoping for access.

Clearance issue

The couple wrote to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for clearance to import the frozen embryos from the US in 2018. In 2019, they got to know that ICMR is currently issuing NOCs only for the export of embryos. The guidelines for the import of embryos have been finalised and sent to the Deputy Director General of Foreign Trade (DDGFT) for approval. But in the absence of any directions from DDGFT, ICMR will not be able to issue the NOC.

The couple also wrote to the customs department seeking clarification with respect to procedures for the import of embryos from the US. However, they were informed that the policy has been amended in 2015 by DDGFT. Under new rules, the import of human embryos is prohibited except for research.

The petitioners have also pointed to the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2019 and the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill 2020 still pending in Parliament. These restrict the commercialisation of surrogacy and aims to protect the surrogate mother as well as the child born. However, theirs is not a case of commercialisation of surrogacy and it is purely because of medical reasons that the couple have to go in for surrogacy, argued Pradhan on Monday.

The couple has prayed that the court should order ICMR to issue an NOC. Or in the alternative, ICMR and various other government bodies which look into the issue should decide on their representation.

Watch Mimi, says court

After hearing Pradhan at length, the division bench of Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice Madhav J Jamdar issued notice to the Union government and kept the plea for further hearing on September 14. In a lighter vein, the bench asked Pradhan to watch the recently released movie Mimi before the next hearing. The film centers on surrogacy where a woman, aspiring to make it big in Bollywood, agrees to be a surrogate for a couple from abroad in lieu of money.

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Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/law/story/couple-india-bombay-hc-frozen-embryos-us-exclusive-1847283-2021-08-30