ART Bill Proves To Be Instrumental

An insightful and detailed talk on empowering women, IVF, the ART bill, sexual health and wellness

The discussion kicked off on the note that one of the most important aspects when it comes to empowering a woman, is to give her the awareness and to give her the ability to make a decision about her reproductive health and her sexual health. In this panel discussion focusing on the ART (Assisted Reproductive Technology) bill, IVF (In vitro fertilization) treatment and other aspects of women’s sexual health and wellness, esteemed doctors in this field shared their views and a broad, unique and informative perspective. 

At DIGITALLWITHBW, Dr. Mukta Kapila, Director and Unit Head, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Fortis Memorial Research Institute - India, stated that, “I feel it is a fantastic move as in India what happens is that anything you start, people do it fearlessly. There was so much malpractice and people were handling the embryos in a negative manner, whilst the embryo is actually someone’s baby. Selling the embryos became a menace.” She also went on to say that even foreigners can come and get it done here as abroad it is too expensive. It is a move that will change their perspective to legal practices in India.

On the topics of IVF and the ART bill, Dr. Sonia Malik, Director and HOD, Nova Southend Fertility & IVF spoke about the ART and surrogacy bill in a candid and very pleasant manner, saying that, “We all have been looking forward to a regulation as all these years we have been following the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) guidelines, and that was not enough. First of all, IVF (In vitro Fertilization) became a market and unfortunately we can see it mushrooming everywhere and we have all kinds of clinics.” 

She decoded the fact that therefore, the govt. saw the need for regulating the space of ART. With the new regulations only super specialists in the field would be allowed to practice and the others would not. A lot of unnecessary elements that have cropped out are going to be eradicated.

Dr. Aruna Kalra, Director, Obstetrics and Gynecology, CK Birla Hospital said, “As India is going to be a big marketplace and already is for neighbouring countries who to look up to it though we also used to think only developing countries like Nepal or Bangladesh but now people from Canada and New Zealand, or from the UK or the US, have direct access to doctors here.” 

Abroad, infertility takes time and is very expensive, hence foreigners come to India. International tourism for medicine is increasing and the faith is there in them that it is legal in the country and there will be no malpractices due to this law.

Dr. Kshitiz Murdia, Director, Indira IVF Group said that, “Being in the fertility segment I think it is a good milestone that India as a country has achieved by getting the ART – (Assisted Reproductive Technology) bill because that will help in standardisation of practices, equal reporting platforms, and most importantly for the patients who will gain trust and confidence in going through the procedures, because otherwise, people would have different views.” 

He went on to explain that, all said and done, India is and would be the capital of fertility treatment across the world, having a 12 to 15 per cent infertility rate and having the largest population of reproductive age group women – nearly 27 to 30 million couples or infertile females are suffering from this disorder. As of now only 10 percent go for fertility treatment, only 1 per cent go for IVF treatment, so he thinks with this ART bill coming into place, a lot of awareness will come in the near future and on the path ahead. According to him it will be a big boost to the sector.