Surrogacy Scam in Telangana: History Repeats: Top Stories Srushti Surrogacy Scam Reveals Lapses in Telangana Fertility controls
The Srushti surrogacy scam unveils half of Telangana fertility centres are careless, unlicensed and follow dubious practices- initiating the raids, ensuing arrests and state-level remedial efforts.
Hyderabad: What started as a story of financial fraud against the Universal Srushti Fertility Centre, has now churned into a complete exposure of pollution facilitated through fertility centres in Telangana and the flaws in regulation. The latest raids and investigations have revealed shocking malpractice across dozens-of facilities in the state.
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The authorities found out that around 50 percent of the fertility centres in Telangana are working against medical and ethical guidelines, and subjecting safety of patients and ethics of surrogacy to serious estimation.
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At the centre of this scandal is the Srushti centre itself. As a licensed clinic, it lost its medical license in 2021 because of illegally having banned equipment (e.g. sex determination devices) but then operated by using the license of another doctor fraudulently.
The centre of investigations is Dr. Athaluri Namratha the owner of the Universal Srushti Fertility Centre. Police uncovered a track of evidence that surrogacy practices had been faked where babies were acquired by desperate parents with as low as 90 thousand rupees, and further sold to unsuspecting couples at maximum 35 lakhs, with falsified papers being issued to cover up the lack of genetic links.
The revelation took the form of a DNA test that dashed the hopes of a couple–the child that it had brought to life, labelled the lover and/or surrogate had no biological connection to them. This revelation resulted in regular police raids, during which they could have confiscated key evidence- everything about unlicensed scan devices, falsified records and electronic logs of communication throughout the Srushti premises.
To date, 25 people including Dr. Namratha and her son, doctors, agents, technicians, and the biological parents conspiring in the illegal chain are arrested. Among them is an anaesthetist in Gandhi Hospital who intentionally gave anesthesia at the illegitimate clinic even when she was aware it was an illegal clinic.
To this end, the Telangana government has instituted a three-member inspection committee, which consists of the state health commissioner, the CEO of the Rajiv Aarogyasri Health Care Trust and director of medical education. The panel is mandated to audit the fertility clinics statewide, screen licensing mandate compliance as per Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021, and determine regulatory breaches and ethical misconduct. Within 10 days, the committee must give its findings.
Why It Matters
Huge Review in Regulatory Compliances Needed- The unveiling of permissiveness and criminal infringement of IVF procedures means there is a grave inadequacy in the application of fertility regulation.
Patients Safety at Risk The exploitation of cryptogenital couplings and the surrogate mothers must prompt the reform in the scope of medical standards and openness.
Ethical and legal reckoning- The androgyny of the surrogacy services without any genetic connection focuses on how imperative it becomes to follow by the book the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021.
This scandalous incident has rattled a widespread uproar and the importance of strong monitoring to protect reproductive healthcare activities in the state has become the biggest priority.
