REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS OF WOMEN : A STUDY IN REFERENCE TO NEW SURROGACY LAW OF INDIA

Women right of reproduction is a fundamental right guaranteed by Indian constitution under article 21 i.e. right to life and personal liberty. In a recent landmark judgment of right to privacy honble supreme court has again affirmed that women has full liberty to decide whether to have or not to have their child.Bearing a child is one of the important aspects of the institution of marriage. However, there may be various instances where this task is not achieved owing to medical infertility or medical complications either of husband or wifeor of both. Although there are several instances where, in order to maintain the physical fitness certain women having no such medical complications or infertility opt for artificial procreation. Single Individuals, divorced, widows and so on and so forth may be fertile but are unable to have a child as the process of procreation requires a male and female. Homosexual individuals and couples also fall under this head. Taking into account the plight of these groups Indian Parliament has recently passed two new legislations namely, The Assisted Reproductive Technology(Regulation) Act 2021 and The Surrogacy (Regulation) Act 20211. It was not like that, before these enactments children were not born using these Assisted Reproductive Technology,but in the garb of infertility several poor women were exploited in the name of commercial surrogacy and they were left in lurch after the prospective parents refused to take the child or some citizenship issues arises and the poor overburdened family was forced to take care of that child. This lead to several court cases. This paper will deal with the new laws as well as judicial pronouncements relating to womens right of reproduction and how these laws will help in protecting the womens right of reproduction.