The Delhi high court has issued a notice on a petition challenging the blanket ban on embryo adoption under Indian law. The plea argues that the restriction discriminates against infertile couples by denying them access to donated embryos. The court has sought the centre's response and scheduled the next hearing for April 17.
The Delhi high court issued a notice on Wednesday to a petition challenging the blanket ban on embryo adoption in India. Embryo adoption involves the voluntary donation of a cryopreserved embryo, created through in vitro fertilisation (IVF) by one couple, to another woman or couple for gestation and childbirth.
The challenge targets sections 25(2), 27(5), and 28(2) of the Assisted Reproductive Technology Act, along with Rule 13(1)(a) of the 2022 Assisted Reproductive Technologies (Regulation) Rules. These provisions prohibit the altruistic donation of pre-existing frozen embryos to other infertile couples, requiring ART clinics to preserve unused gametes or embryos only for the original recipient.
A bench comprising Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia sought the centre's stance on the petition filed by IVF specialist Dr Aniruddha Narayan Malpani. Represented by senior advocate Maneka Goswami and advocate Mohini Priya, the plea argues that the ban creates unequal treatment among infertile couples, allowing double donor IVF—where both egg and sperm come from donors—but denying embryo adoption. It further contends that the prohibition draws an arbitrary distinction between embryos from double donor gametes and voluntarily donated pre-existing ones under safeguards.
The petition states: “The impugned prohibition on altruistic embryo donation creates an irrational and constitutionally impermissible classification between altruistic sperm and egg donation, including double donor gamete IVF and altruistic donation of a cryopreserved embryo, which is effectively barred without any intelligible differentia.” Such restrictions violate the fundamental right to equality, as well as rights to privacy, dignity, and reproductive autonomy.
