It was the India launch of Kishwar Desais book,Origins of Love,in the Capital on Friday night that drew the audiences attention to the subject of surrogacy,infertility and sperm donation,once again. The event,which was held at Vivanta By Taj (formerly Ambassador),saw a charged one-hour-long panel discussion between the author,adman-lyricist Prasoon Joshi and CPM leader and womens rights activist Brinda Karat. Desais new novel deals with surrogacy-related issues at length the callous treatment meted out to infertile women,and how surrogacy is becoming an industry where the body of woman is treated as a factory to produce designer babies for customers. Worst,the mother who rents out her womb is expected to be detached from the baby and hand it over to commissioning parents at once. As the discussion started to hover around these nuances,Karat said,A new surrogacy law should be introduced wherein a woman is allowed to rent her womb only thrice in her lifetime. Joshi added,There should be stringent laws to ensure the surrogate mother better health facilities. Once the formal release and discussion was over,in between signing the copies,Desai said,Surrogacy has become a global problem. As India becomes globalised,it needs to focus more attention on its complexities,especially the emotional ones. She said the title of the novel is a take on Charles Darwins Origin of Species theory. Life is no longer a gift of love; the process of producing babies has become an advanced science with the advent of surrogacy and IVF, she added. Later,Joshi said,Surrogacy has become the hottest topic these days. But I hope people dig deep enough into it before moving on to the next topic. In this age of Twitter trends,we need a new topic everyday. The India-born author,who moved to the UK after her marriage to Lord Meghnad Desai,has come up with the book two years after its prequel,Witness the Night,which dealt with the issue of female foeticide. The third book in the crime novel trilogy will be out next year,and will be based on the subject of abuse of teenage girls. Origins of Love will be launched at the prestigious Hay Festival in London later this month.
