India’s Foreign Minister has taken up the cause of a British couple who had a surrogate daughter in India but could be forced to leave her in an orphanage due to delays by London in processing her passport. Chris and Michele Newman are in Mumbai on a medical visa that is valid until October 7.
They applied for their daughter Lily’s passport in early June, days after her
birth in May. The couple said they were told by Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office that they should be prepared to leave without their daughter.
“We cannot believe that we could be forced to do the unthinkable and leave our baby in India,” the couple, both in their forties, wrote in an online petition on change.org. The minister, Sushma Swaraj wrote on Twitter, underlining her stand against commercial surrogacy and defended India’s recent introduction of strict surrogacy laws.
“Will the advocates of commercial surrogacy suggest a solution and help this baby?’’ she wrote, adding in a later tweet that Commercial surrogacy is banned in Britain. Report says the British couple is among the last to have a surrogate baby in India after the government decided to ban commercial surrogacy and said only a close relative can be a surrogate.
Meanwhile the British Home Office has said a passport would be issued after checks to ensure that the child’s “interests are protected” and claim to British nationality are verified.
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