Surrogacy and Baby Manjhi

Japanese couple Ikufumi Yamada (husband) and Yuki Yamada (wife) traveled to India in late
2007 to discuss with fertility specialist Dr. Nayna Patel their desire to hire a surrogate mother
to bear a child for them. The doctor arranged a surrogacy contract with Pritiben Mehta, a
married Indian woman with children. Dr. Patel supervised the creation of an embryo from
Ikufumi Yamadas sperm and an egg harvested from an anonymous Indian woman. The
embryo was then implanted into Mehtas womb.
In June 2008, the Yamadas divorced, and a month later Baby Manji was born to the surrogate
mother. Ikufumis wife Yuki (who was not genetically related to the baby) didn't want the
baby. Also, Pritiben Mehta did not want take care of the child saying that the contract had
ended. Suddenly, Baby Manji had three mothersthe intended mother who had contracted
for the surrogacy, the egg donor, and the gestational surrogateyet legally she had none.
Both the parentage and the nationality of Baby Manji were impossible to determine under
existing definitions of family and citizenship under Indian and Japanese law. Nor did any
existing laws help to clarify the matter. Japanese law didn't recognize surrogacy and Indian
Law wouldn't allow a single man to adopt a baby child.
While the biological father wanted to claim the baby, he was prevented by a legal system
which had no provision for children born via surrogacy. After a prolonged legal battle,
Ikufumi Yamada's mother, (who had come to India to look after the child she considered her
grandchild, after her son's Indian visa expired,) left for Japan with Baby Manji.

Questions:
1. Do you think that surrogacy is ethical? Why?
2. Do you think that the conduct of Pritiben Mehta (gestational surrogate mother)
ethical?
3. Do you think that the conduct of Yuki Yamada unethical?
4. Comment on the ethical aspect of Dr. Nayna Patels course of actions. Was it ethically
correct for Dr. Patel to suggest surrogacy for international parents? Is it ethical to
arrange for sperm/egg donor?
5. Should sperm/egg donors be held accountable if no-one claims the baby after birth?
6. Do you think that it is ethical to ban commercial surrogacy? Why should someone
like Pritiben Mehta (who is poor and in need of money) be deprived of such an
option?

Adopted from Case Studies in Ethics: Teaching Notes by Kari Points published by
The Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University AND The Curious Case of Baby
Manji by Viveka Roy Chowdhury published in Financial Express