Sushma Swaraj takes a dig at Shah Rukh, Aamir over surrogacy

Union minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday slammed some “celebrities” who, she said, have made surrogacy “a fashion” and “shauq” (hobby).

Without naming anyone, she said that some celebrities who already have kids — both boys and girls — try to get another child through surrogacy as they “don't want to put their wives in (labour) pain”.

“We have many examples of celebrities who have their own children, still they have gone for a surrogate child," she said.

Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Tusshar Kapoor are some of the celebrities who have had kids through surrogacy. 

"I am pained to say that the procedure that started as a necessity, has become a hobby of sorts. This is not a thing for pleasure...it has become a fashion these days,” she said, while addressing a press conference in the capital. 

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016. Swaraj headed the Group of Ministers (GoM) formed to look into the issue of surrogacy.

New surrogacy Bill bars single parents, homosexuals, live-in couples, foreigners. A married woman, who has at least one child of her own can be a surrogate mother only once in her lifetime. Childless or unmarried women are not allowed to be surrogate mothers. The Bill, which borrows heavily from UK’s altruistic surrogacy Bill, has changed the British provision of allowing only blood relatives to “close relatives”, a term that will be further elaborated in the rules.