The nine-day-old Japanese baby seeks Indian laws to have a heart

Jaipur, Aug. 6 : A nine-day old Japanese test tube infant, who took birth here two weeks ago at a private hospital in Ahmedabad, is faced with an unusual dilemma, that of getting a valid passport to return to its home in Japan.

The baby's birth led to the dilemma since the biological parents have divorced after donating their egg and sperm and transplanting them into an Indian surrogate mother.

On being informed about the child's birth, the father Yukufusi Yamada, who is a renowned doctor himself, rushed to India along with his wife. But the father arrived only to be faced with a difficult law disallowing him to take along the newborn to Japan following visa restrictions.

The newborn has been denied the visa. For, as per Indian surrogacy laws, a father alone cannot adopt a girl child. He is required to apply along with his wife.

Since the visa limit was about to expire, Dr. Yukufusi Yamada had to fly back and left the baby's 70-year-old mother behind to look after the infant.

"Dr Yamada divorced his wife around middle of June this year. After their divorce, he came to India to take the baby along with him. But according to Indian law, a single father can never bring up a female child. But the point here is if 50 per cent of father's DNA is there inside the child, why can't he adopt the baby? He is the natural father after all," said Dr. Sanjay Arya of Arya Hospital

The couple had visited India nine-months ago to have a baby from a surrogate mother. Their non-resident Indian friend-cum-host Kamal took the couple to an Ahmedabad hospital where they could have a surrogate mother to give birth to their child.

The couple donated their sperms and returned to Japan. The child was born later.

Recently, following the serial blasts in Ahemedabad, Dr. Yukufusi Yamada's friend Kamal, brought this newborn to Jaipur in Rajasthan from Ahmedabad in Gujarat.

"The baby's grandmother is with the baby in the hospital. After the Ahmedabad blasts I took the baby along with me and came to Jaipur. They wanted to take the baby back with them to Japan. So I went to the Japanese Embassy for the visa but there they asked to bring the passport and the no-objection certificate. But being new to this place, the baby's grandmother could not arrange it till now," said Kamal, host and friend of the Japanese couple.

Since the baby was not physically fit and so on humanitarian grounds this private hospital has promised to provide free of cost treatment to this baby girl. Hospital staff has christened the baby to be known as "Manjhi", which is a religious sign in Buddhism like Swastika sign in Hinduism.

But the Manjhi's problem is now feared to turn into a major crisis after three months, when her grandmother's visa limit would expire and she would also be required to return to Japan. For, in that situation, who would take care of the innocent baby? By Lokendra Singh

ANI