Denied passport twice, surrogate baby finally flies to Japan with mum

Following lack of clarity on the baby's nationality in the surrogacy certificate, the case was referred to MEA; passport officials later issued the child an identity certificate

A middle-aged Japanese couple who became parents of a child born to a surrogate mother through IVF (in-vitro fertilisation) had to face bureaucratic hurdles to procure a passport for their newborn.

Reason: According to the surrogacy certificate submitted to the passport office, the couple's embryo was transferred into the surrogate mother in September 2014, she tested positive for pregnancy in June 2014 and the baby was delivered in February this year.

If the conception took place before the embryo transfer, as the document issued by Anand-based Dr Nayna Patel stated, the child was clearly not theirs and therefore the nationality of the newborn was questionable.So, the officials at Regional Passport Office sought clarity on the matter from the commissioning parents.

“The certificate showed that the surrogate mother had conceived the child even before the couple had approached the IVF expert. It means that she was carrying somebody else's child. Since there was no clarity on the child's nationality the passport process was halted,“ said Regional Passport Officer ZA Khan.

SURROGACY CERTIFICATE WAS RE-ISSUED

The couple then approached Dr Shah who re-issued a surrogacy certificate -this time it said the surrogate mother tested positive for pregnancy in September (the first certificate had said June) and the child was delivered in February.

This further confused the officials because a healthy child cannot be delivered in six months. “It takes at least eight months for a healthy child to be born. But going by the second certificate, the baby was born in six months,“ added Khan. After being told that it was impossible to issue the child a passport, the Japanese mother reached the passport office with an interpreter and began pleading with the officials.

IDENTITY CERTIFICATE ISSUED

The case was then sent to Ministry of External Affairs for advice. In order to help the woman, the passport authorities issued an identity certificate which is given to stateless passport applicants. Under Section 4(2)(b) of the Passports Act, the passport authority can issue identity certificate, showing name of surrogate mother. This does not allow citizenship to the child but would allow the commissioning par ents to take himher out of India.

When Mirror contacted Dr Patel, she said, “Usually the couple seeking a child through surrogacy come to India first to give their sample. This is then transferred to the surrogate mother. When the surrogate mother conceives, the couple comes again to India to sign the contract. It takes time for them to come down again.“

“That is what happened in this case, too. The surrogate mother got pregnant before the agreement was signed,“ she added. Asked why the certificate was re-issued after making changes, Dr Patel said she was unaware of it.

“There is no proper law or legal authority to handle surrogacy cases. We have to send such cases to the ministry for assistance,“ said Khan.