Seanelle Higgins: India Proposes Surrogacy Ban

Recently, India has proposed a surrogacy ban for women who have babies "for a living". 
Advocates for this bill say that they support it because it protects women. Soumya Swaminathan, a woman who helped to draft the proposal says, "There are reports of surrogate women and children being abandoned or not properly treated, visa issues with a child being born for foreign couples who were coming in for surrogacy."Considering the fact that India is only what can be considered a "newly industrialized" country,  healthcare is not very organized, and women who are involved are often not protected. Since these things do occur often, it is very beneficial to help these women negatively impacted by this system by supporting this bill. Passing this bill could also potentially hurt these women in the long-run. Without set laws and regulations put into place, women and couples could turn to dangerous alternatives. This could lead to surrogates undergoing labor without midwives and forced adoption. However, this could also be potentially very damning to couples who cannot have children. One Indian couple benefited from this system by successfully receiving a baby girl from a surrogate after 22 years of trying on their own. Having children after marriage is expected in some of India's culture, so when couples never have one, they feel as if they are disappointing their parents. Allowing this proposed bill to pass could protect women, but at the same time it can drop that veil of security that some women and couples rely on. 

Analysis: I somewhat disagree and agree with this bill. It does protect women from being mistreated and protects couples from foreign issues and social pressures, but at the same time, women who go through this process legally are protected by what little rights they do have. Under the law, women would have to sign legally binding contracts to give up their children. However, without these laws and contracts, women could back out of adoption. This could cause anger and resentment towards these women and put them in grave danger.

Synthesis: Hair braiding Laws in Arkansas
This reminds me of this bill because the hair braiding law banned at-home braiding to be done. This was put in place to protect stylists from being sued for poor quality and tight braid. This benefits them by keeping them safe from legal trouble, but also puts them out of business. I do believe that with both of these acts, there should be more regulations to protect people, but they shouldn't be banned because they benefit people in good ways.

www.cnn.com/2016/09/08/asia/india-surrogacy-laws/?iid=ob_lockedrail_bottomlarge