In a nation where millions of children fall into the ditch of orphan hood every year and even more women are forced to take the rein of running their family’s livelihood into their own hands, Minister of State, Health and Family Welfare, Anupriya Patel’s remark has questioned the very notion of motherhood.

“People say it is the conscious choice of the woman. Our stand is that it is a very wrong notion of the family as a whole to use the woman’s body to make money. Is she a child-producing factory?” said Patel on the sidelines of India Africa Health Summit. While she blatantly correlated the selfless system of motherhood with that of money making machine, women who lend their body for the birth of a new life grieved with tears in their eyes.

“Is carrying a baby inside you with all the love and care and then giving him away just an act of crass commerce?” one of the many deplored women asked.

While the proponents of the Surrogacy Bill asserted that this bill would work for the welfare of the many children who are orphaned every day, it is also to be noted that the bill itself is in no consonance with the fundamental rights of the Constitution as it goes against the equality offered which in its very principle which pays no heed to a person’s nationality, marital status, sexual orientation or age.

Further, the right to life under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution includes the right to reproductive autonomy inculcating the right to procreation and parenthood. Therefore, barring the state to decide the modes of parenthood

It will be interesting to see which side gains more backing; the idea of seeding a new life or supporting an existing one.