Your Rights Under India's Fertility Laws

The ART Act came into force in 2022 and regulates every clinic in India that offers assisted reproductive technology, IVF, IUI, ICSI, gamete (egg or sperm) handling, and embryo transfer. The law's purpose is to make ART services safer, more transparent, and more accountable to patients.

The Act applies to clinics, not to educational tools or information apps. It does not restrict what we can share with you about fertility, and it does not replace clinical advice from a qualified doctor at a registered clinic.

• • Be registered with the National Registry of Banks and Clinics, maintained by the National ART and Surrogacy Board.
• • Provide counselling before starting any ART procedure, covering medical, psychological, and ethical aspects.
• • Obtain your written informed consent for every procedure, in a language you understand.
• • Follow ICMR guidelines for laboratory standards, screening of gametes, and embryology procedures.
• • Maintain confidential records of every patient and every procedure, retained for at least 10 years.
• • Not advertise sex-selection or guaranteed outcomes (both are prohibited).
• • Maintain insurance cover for gamete donors and surrogate mothers (if applicable).

• • Right to information. You can ask, and the clinic must tell you, about success rates, costs, alternatives, and the risks of any procedure before you consent.
• • Right to counselling. Pre-treatment counselling is mandatory. It is part of the service, not an add-on you pay extra for.
• • Right to written consent in a language you understand. If the consent form is not in a language you read comfortably, you can ask for one that is.
• • Donor anonymity. If you use donor gametes, the donor's identity is protected. You will receive medically relevant information about the donor but not identifying details, this protects everyone involved.
• • Right to confidentiality. Your medical records, your treatment, and the fact that you used ART cannot be shared without your written consent (except where the law requires).
• • Right to withdraw. You can stop treatment at any stage. Embryos created from your gametes cannot be used without your continued consent.
• • Right to complain. If a clinic does not meet these standards, you can report it to the National ART and Surrogacy Board.

Every clinic offering ART in India must be registered with the National ART and Surrogacy Board, set up under Section 17 of the Act. Before starting treatment, you can:

• • Ask the clinic for its registration number under the ART Act.
• • Check the registry maintained by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• • Ask which ICMR-accredited laboratory the clinic uses, and whether its embryologists are certified.

A clinic that hesitates to share its registration number, or operates without one, is not compliant with the Act. You are entitled to walk away.

Surrogacy in India is regulated separately, alongside the ART Act. The Surrogacy (Regulation) Act 2021 sets out a number of important rules:

• • Only altruistic surrogacy is permitted. Commercial surrogacy is prohibited.
• • The surrogate must be a close relative of the intending couple, married, with at least one child of her own, and aged between 25 and 35.
• • Surrogacy is available only to Indian married couples (subject to medical eligibility) and to certain widows and divorced women aged 35–45.
• • The surrogate's medical expenses and insurance must be covered by the intending couple for the pregnancy and 36 months after delivery.
• • Surrogacy clinics must be registered separately under the Surrogacy Act, in addition to ART Act registration if they also provide ART.

The National Surrogacy Board oversees compliance. Surrogacy is a complex legal area, before considering it, speak to a clinic that is registered under both Acts and ideally consult an independent lawyer.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) writes the technical guidelines that ART clinics must follow under the Act, things like how gametes are screened, how embryos are stored, how laboratories are run, and how donors are recruited.

As a patient, you do not need to read the ICMR guidelines yourself. But you can ask a clinic: "Are your protocols compliant with the current ICMR National Guidelines for ART Clinics?" A registered clinic will answer yes and be able to point you to the relevant standards.

Appy + Yaar is an educational support tool. It helps you understand fertility, your cycle, treatment options, and how to prepare for conversations with a clinician. It is not a medical device. It does not diagnose, does not prescribe, and does not replace the care of a registered ART clinic.

Anything you read here is to help you ask better questions. The diagnosis and treatment plan must come from a qualified doctor at a clinic registered under the ART Act.

• • Ministry of Health and Family Welfare publishes the ART Act and rules.
• • ICMR publishes the National Guidelines for ART Clinics, available on icmr.org.in.
• • National ART and Surrogacy Board is the regulatory authority you can contact for complaints or clinic verification.