Born an alien

02.06.10

It took all of two years for a German Couple to secure a Visa for their twins, born of a surrogate, and take them home.

Two-year-old twins Nikolas and Leonard born to an Indian Surrogate are stateless ‘aliens’ both in India and Germany thanks to a ban on surrogacy in Germany and ill-defined Indian surrogacy laws.

German Couple Mr and Mrs John Balaz have been waging a two-year long legal battle to take their children home. They enjoyed a minor reprieve last Tuesday when their children were granted a Visa to Germany.

While Germany refuses the twins citizenship on the grounds that its laws do not recognise surrogacy, Indian laws do not permit children born to an Indian surrogate to be granted citizenship status in instances where the surrogacy is commissioned by a foreign couple.

Founder of the Indian Surrogacy Law Centre, G. R Hari says that the only legal recourse for the German Couple is to file for an inter-state adoption for the twins in Germany, thus, paving the way for the children to be granted German Citizenship.

Dr Nayana Patel who pioneered the outsourcing of commercial surrogacy in India has an easy solution to such legal tangles. She thinks it would be best for foreign couples to get a written guarantee of citizenship for their due offspring from the Foreign Embassies of their respective countries before commissioning a surrogacy in India.

However, poor laws might just prove to be a spoke in the wheel for India’s latest outsourcing business- the booming rental of wombs.