scholarly journals Surrogacy in India: ethics versus incentive

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 3713
Author(s):  
Gurleen Kaur ◽  
Rakesh Chawla
Keyword(s):  
Search Engines ◽  
Legal Service ◽  
Surrogate Mother ◽  
Indian Government ◽  
Medical Practitioners ◽  
Psychological Conditions ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Commercial Surrogacy ◽  
Religious Issues ◽  
Latin Term

The word surrogacy has its origin among the Latin term “surrogatus” which suggests a lady acts as a substitute for a pregnant woman. Surrogacy has been in practice form last thirty years. The surrogacy regulated by business can be classified as then, altruistic surrogacy and commercial surrogacy. The paper aim to conduct systematic review on surrogacy. The literature review was conducted using PubMed and alternative search engines. Further, additional information concerning the constitutional articles was collected from search engines like legal service of India, prsinndia.org, icmr.nic.in, Press Information Bureau, Wikipedia, IJCM and Indiankanoon. In India, surrogacy is legally recognised since 2002. This paper looks into various aspects of surrogacy. Factors faced by the surrogate mother such as exploitation, psychological conditions, human rights, dignity and respect, feminism and religious issues are explored. The paper discuss the economic benefit is mostly enjoyed by the medical practitioners. The Indian government tried to curb the problems by updating the law to overcome the challenges but with time government introduce the surrogacy bill in 2016 which addressed many issues and still in 2020 it address various aspects of surrogacy to prevent the exploitation.

The Reproductive State

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anindita Majumdar
Keyword(s):  
Birth Certificate ◽  
Parallel Process ◽  
Reproductive State ◽  
Surrogate Mother ◽  
Foreign Nationals ◽  
Dna Test ◽  
Commercial Surrogacy ◽  
International Laws

The birth of the child in transnational commercial surrogacy leads to a protracted process of staking claim. In this chapter, the focus is especially on the national and international laws that are invoked by foreign parents and foreign consulates to grant citizenship to the newborn. The applications for citizenship from their home countries, and the exit visa from India lead to many processes of bureaucratic verification and authentication of the genetic tie between the child and the intended parent(s) and the surrogate mother. Seeking identity here are both the new parents and the newborn. Through the birth certificate and the DNA test paternity is identified, while a parallel process seeks to ascertain maternity through the surrogate mother—who incidentally has rejected her tie to the newborn as part of the contractual requirements! Through the narratives of three foreign nationals navigating the citizenship process—international laws regarding surrogacy, kinship and citizens are analysed.

Mothers and Fathers

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anindita Majumdar
Keyword(s):  
Informed Consent ◽  
Willingness To Participate ◽  
Surrogate Mother ◽  
Mothers And Fathers ◽  
Commercial Surrogacy ◽  
Surrogacy Arrangement

What drives the desire to be part of the commercial surrogacy arrangement in India? This chapter seeks to answer this question by looking at an important aspect of transnational commercial surrogacy: informed consent from the commissioning couple and the surrogate mother. A ‘declaration of intent’ by both participants is a mandatory document within the surrogacy contract. What does intention mean? It is not merely a willingness to participate and agree with the modalities of the commercial surrogacy contract, but also to ‘choose’ to be part of it. Within this ‘choice’ and the use of the nomenclature of the ‘intended parent’ and the ‘fertile’ surrogate are the processes of screening eligibility to be part of the arrangement. Thus, in the examination of the notion of ‘intention’, the ‘contract’, couple/individual and the surrogate mother ‘speak’ of their choice of surrogacy. In this way motherhood and fatherhood are explored in relation to ideas regarding kinship, genes, and nurturance.

Web Mining in Thematic Search Engines

2011 ◽  
pp. 2080-2084
Author(s):  
Massimiliano Caramia ◽  
Giovanni Felici
Keyword(s):  
Data Mining ◽  
Genetic Algorithm ◽  
Search Engines ◽  
Web Mining ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
User Query ◽  
Search Tool

In the present chapter we report on some extensions on the work presented in the first edition of the Encyclopedia of Data Mining. In Caramia and Felici (2005) we have described a method based on clustering and a heuristic search method- based on a genetic algorithm - to extract pages with relevant information for a specific user query in a thematic search engine. Starting from these results we have extended the research work trying to match some issues related to the semantic aspects of the search, focusing on the keywords that are used to establish the similarity among the pages that result from the query. Complete details on this method, here omitted for brevity, can be found in Caramia and Felici (2006). Search engines technologies remain a strong research topic, as new problems and new demands from the market and the users arise. The process of switching from quantity (maintaining and indexing large databases of web pages and quickly select pages matching some criterion) to quality (identifying pages with a high quality for the user), already highlighted in Caramia and Felici (2005), has not been interrupted, but has gained further energy, being motivated by the natural evolution of the internet users, more selective in their choice of the search tool and willing to pay the price of providing extra feedback to the system and wait more time to have their queries better matched. In this framework, several have considered the use of data mining and optimization techniques, that are often referred to as web mining (for a recent bibliography on this topic see, e.g., Getoor, Senator, Domingos, and Faloutsos, 2003 and Zaïane, Srivastava, Spiliopoulou, and Masand, 2002). The work described in this chapter is bases on clustering techniques to identify, in the set of pages resulting from a simple query, subsets that are homogeneous with respect to a vectorization based on context or profile; then, a number of small and potentially good subsets of pages is constructed, extracting from each cluster the pages with higher scores. Operating on these subsets with a genetic algorithm, a subset with a good overall score and a high internal dissimilarity is identified. A related problem is then considered: the selection of a subset of pages that are compliant with the search keywords, but that also are characterized by the fact that they share a large subset of words different from the search keywords. This characteristic represents a sort of semantic connection of these pages that may be of use to spot some particular aspects of the information present in the pages. Such a task is accomplished by the construction of a special graph, whose maximumweight clique and k-densest subgraph should represent the page subsets with the desired properties. In the following we summarize the main background topics and provide a synthetic description of the methods. Interested readers may find additional information in Caramia and Felici (2004), Caramia and Felici (2005), and Caramia and Felici (2006).

The Surrogacy Trail

2015 ◽  
pp. 139-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Hieda
Keyword(s):  
In Vitro Fertilization ◽  
Surrogate Mother ◽  
Vitro Fertilization ◽  
Traditional Form ◽  
Commercial Surrogacy ◽  
Out Of Pocket Expenses ◽  
Gestational Surrogacy

Surrogacy is the carrying of a child for its intended parents by another person where they cannot do this themselves. There are two main types; gestational surrogacy and traditional surrogacy. The first relies on the transfer of an embryo created by in-vitro fertilization (IVF); the resulting child is not genetically related to the surrogate mother. In the traditional form, the surrogate mother is impregnated naturally or artificially, and the child is genetically related to the surrogate. In either case the intended parent(s) may seek such arrangements when pregnancy may be difficult, or because they are male. If the surrogate mother is paid (other than out-of-pocket expenses), the arrangement is commercial surrogacy; otherwise it is ‘altruistic' surrogacy. Legal situations and costs vary, and if possible at all, usually requires specific arrangements between countries. Problems, such those in the recent Australia-Thailand (Gammy) case, can arise even with agreements.

Prospects and Challenges of Medical Tourism

2020 ◽  
pp. 265-276
Author(s):  
Sunildro LS Akoijam ◽  
Tabassum Khan
Keyword(s):  
Exponential Growth ◽  
Medical Tourism ◽  
The State ◽  
Advanced Technology ◽  
Minimal Cost ◽  
Indian Government ◽  
Medical Problems ◽  
Foreign Nationals ◽  
Medical Practitioners ◽  
Research Institutes

Medical tourism has seen rapid growth in the past few years in Manipur from neighboring states as well as countries, particularly Myanmar. Manipur is also trying to be on the medical tourism map of India with eminent medical practitioners across the state trying to take advantage of the Act East Policy of the Indian Government. Manipur witnessed a significant investment in healthcare over the last decade. With the emergence of some of the eminent hospitals and research institutes with advanced technology in the state, the diagnosis of many of the complicated medical problems are done effectively with minimal cost. The prospect looks bright, but challenges such as tag of being a ‘disturbed area' and complex visa procedures for foreign nationals could constraints to the exponential growth of medical tourism in Manipur, especially from neighboring countries. The chapter is an attempt to study the prospects and challenges of medical tourism in Manipur. The study is exploratory in nature with insights from available literature and data from various sources.

Waiting with the Womb

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anindita Majumdar
Keyword(s):  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Surrogate Mother ◽  
Making Meaning ◽  
Commercial Surrogacy ◽  
Born Child ◽  
Pregnancy And Birth

In the process of making kin—which is what transnational commercial surrogacy is geared towards—the surrogate pregnancy becomes a ‘goal’ for all participants involved. However, the liminality of the pregnancy becomes both risky and transgressive when navigated through the bodies of ‘alien’ others. Both for the surrogate mother and the intended parents, the pregnant body becomes a source of ambivalence and conflict. In this chapter, the ethnography maps the role of the ‘others’—agents, relatives of the intended parents, the surrogate’s husband—in making meaning out of an ‘alien’ pregnancy’. Here, the embodied/disembodied pregnancy leads to ‘disembodied relationships’. Cross-cultural notions regarding conception, pregnancy, and birth intermingle in a conflicted narrative of ‘kinning’ a soon-to-be born child. The idea of shared bodily substances within the foetus mark out not only the intended parents and the surrogate mother—but their other relationships as well.

Searching web documents using a summarization approach

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rani Qumsiyeh ◽  
Yiu-Kai Ng
Keyword(s):  
Search Engines ◽  
Web Search ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Information Need ◽  
Search Query ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Search Results ◽  
User Query ◽  
Web Search Engines

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce a summarization method to enhance the current web-search approaches by offering a summary of each clustered set of web-search results with contents addressing the same topic, which should allow the user to quickly identify the information covered in the clustered search results. Web search engines, such as Google, Bing and Yahoo!, rank the set of documents S retrieved in response to a user query and represent each document D in S using a title and a snippet, which serves as an abstract of D. Snippets, however, are not as useful as they are designed for, i.e. assisting its users to quickly identify results of interest. These snippets are inadequate in providing distinct information and capture the main contents of the corresponding documents. Moreover, when the intended information need specified in a search query is ambiguous, it is very difficult, if not impossible, for a search engine to identify precisely the set of documents that satisfy the user’s intended request without requiring additional information. Furthermore, a document title is not always a good indicator of the content of the corresponding document either. Design/methodology/approach The authors propose to develop a query-based summarizer, called QSum, in solving the existing problems of Web search engines which use titles and abstracts in capturing the contents of retrieved documents. QSum generates a concise/comprehensive summary for each cluster of documents retrieved in response to a user query, which saves the user’s time and effort in searching for specific information of interest by skipping the step to browse through the retrieved documents one by one. Findings Experimental results show that QSum is effective and efficient in creating a high-quality summary for each cluster to enhance Web search. Originality/value The proposed query-based summarizer, QSum, is unique based on its searching approach. QSum is also a significant contribution to the Web search community, as it handles the ambiguous problem of a search query by creating summaries in response to different interpretations of the search which offer a “road map” to assist users to quickly identify information of interest.

scholarly journals One step forward or one step back? Autonomy, agency and surrogates in the Indian Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2019

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Swati Gola
Keyword(s):  
Informed Consent ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Autonomous Agent ◽  
Indian Government ◽  
Commercial Surrogacy ◽  
Modern Family ◽  
Surrogacy Arrangement ◽  
One Step ◽  
Indian Law

Abstract The Indian government has recently introduced legislation to regulate ‘altruistic’ surrogacy while banning ‘commercial’ surrogacy amidst the criticism that India has become the ‘baby factory’. In the past decade, academic discourse has raised socioethical and legal issues that surfaced in the unrestricted transnational commercial-surrogacy industry. Most of the literature and ethnographic studies centred on the issues of informed consent, autonomy, decision-making and exploitation. With the proposed legislation, the Indian government has shown its will to regulate surrogacy, including the medical intermediaries as well as the contract between the intending parents and the surrogate mother-to-be. The present paper addresses the legal and socioethical context in which India introduced the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2019. It examines the extent to which the proposed law responds to the legal challenges and socioethical concerns that surfaced in the course of unregulated transnational commercial-surrogacy arrangements in India. It argues that, even though the proposed legislation addresses and responds to some of the legal and ethical concerns such as informed consent and legal parentage, it stops short of ensuring the welfare and well-being of the surrogate. Second, the legal certainty of parentage and the child's rights comes at the cost of the physical and psychological well-being of the surrogate. Finally, it argues that, by presupposing the surrogate as an autonomous agent and yet imposing the requirement of marriage, the Bill overlooks the sociocultural realities of patriarchal hierarchies entrenched in Indian society – that, in its conception of ‘family’, the focus on the ‘traditional’ family not only presents a narrow view of the heteronormative family and perpetuates the patriarchal notions of gender roles, but also fails to take into consideration maternal pluralism in surrogacy arrangements, undermines the modern family and, above all, discriminates against the single person's and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities’ right to found a family. Since many countries that served as centres for international commercial-surrogacy arrangement (such as Cambodia, Thailand and Nepal) have recently started to take steps to prohibit or limit transnational surrogacy arrangements, the analysis of Indian law in the present paper will provide a useful context within which these countries can effectively regulate surrogacy while safeguarding the surrogate's rights and interests.

scholarly journals Flood Mitigation in Developing Countries: A Case Study of India

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-95
Author(s):  
Md. Karar Ahmad
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Structural Control ◽  
Flood Hazard ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Flood Mitigation ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Indian Government ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Public Property

Floods are the common natural disasters in most of the developing countries, and India isno exception.Due to the geographic and climatic conditions the country remains under threat. Floods have been recurrent phenomenon in many parts of India, causing loss of lives and public property and bringing untold misery to the people. The floods that occurred in India in 2013 were highly catastrophic based on the number of victims. International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, IFRC (2013) continues to steer the evacuation efforts as well as in rescuing the stranded victims. Methods of structural control of floodwater can be grouped into four types; namely, storage, diversion, enhancing channel capacity, and constriction of the water within the channel. The following flood mitigation measures could be adopted to mitigate the adverse impacts of severe floods and to prevent normal floods. Flood walls are constructed out of materials such as concrete or steel in order to control the flow of flood waters and prevent the flooding of specific areas. The construction of floodwalls and embankments has been the traditional means of protecting low lying communities and infrastructure against flooding. Flood hazard maps contain information about the probability or magnitude of an event whereas flood risk maps contain additional information about the consequences. Flood insurance is one of the effective ways in order to cope with the aftermaths of flood events. The Indian government acknowledges the problems the country faces because of the various natural disasters that occur. Consequently, various agencies have been instituted to evaluate the country’s exposure to disasters and to develop ways of mitigating or managing the impacts of the disasters.

scholarly journals ‘Womb for Rent’: Socio-Cultural Implications of Reproductive Tourism in India

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Eki Okungbowa
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Indian Government ◽  
Indian Women ◽  
Race And Class ◽  
Commercial Surrogacy ◽  
Cultural Implications ◽  
Global North ◽  
The Media ◽  
Reproductive Tourism

Background Commercial surrogacy in India has become an increasingly controversial human rights and global health issue. Indian women living in dire poverty are the most vulnerable group in this transnational phenomenon. Reproductive tourism can be defined as the process whereby affluent people predominately from Global North countries (i.e., Canada) seek assisted reproduction in the Global South (in this case, India), to accomplish fertility and kinship formation goals while remaining oblivious to the inevitable social issues associated with this international trade. Objective This paper investigates how the media and academic anthropological research present current understandings of biotechnology, family, and kinship regarding commercial surrogacy. I argue that reproductive tourism is a multifaceted social issue with significant socio-cultural implications for kinship in India and the Global North, by being rooted in a gendered division of labour, culturally-specific belief systems, technological advancement, race and class stratification, capitalist structures, and globalization. Methods Although reproductive tourism is indeed interdisciplinary in nature, this project explicitly took an anthropological and global health approach to understanding its impacts on kinship in local and global communities. With regards to researcher positionality, I played an outsider role in understanding Indian women and the cultural context in India. I critically and reflexively analyzed diverse media sources that offered insights on reproductive tourism in India within the domains outlined in my thesis statement. These media sources were found online, and included mainstream media outlets, news articles, articles by journalists and social activists, websites for organizations of interest, corporate sources, blogs, videos, documentaries, and images. I used scholarly articles in anthropology as ethnographic evidence to support, challenge, or extend claims reported by the media. Academic sources included peer-reviewed publications, books, open access materials, grey literature, academic websites, and legal documents. I qualitatively compared and contrasted the presented narratives to conduct a secondary analysis of scholarly literature and media reports, and constructed valid arguments about the current state of reproductive tourism in India. Results The commodification of reproductive labour has had vast impacts on the cultural meanings of kinship in India and Global North countries. Reproductive tourism in India is evidence that culture influences biological, reproductive, and technological processes and how they are perceived in contemporary times. Technology and globalization were found to be propellers of commercial surrogacy that transcend international borders. Expectations related to family formation and gender within Western contexts, and Western forms of kinship contribute to the commercial surrogacy industry. Reproductive tourism perpetuates hierarchies along the lines of race and class, and Indian women face exploitation and serious health risks despite being paid for their reproductive labour. Conclusion Transnational surrogacy must be perceived by governments as a public matter rather than a private one, in order to adequately derive holistic solutions to halt the exploitation of vulnerable Indian women while balancing the desire of infertile individuals to utilize surrogacy as a means of kinship formation. Update This research paper was written in March 2018. As of December 2018, commercial surrogacy is illegal in India. The Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2018 is an attempt by the Indian government to control the industry and associated issues such as the exploitation of poor women and unprecedented health consequences. This law and policy shift by the Indian government affirms the importance of this research.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document