A convicted Israeli paedophile adopted a 4-year-old girl from a surrogate mother in India, the Jewish Chronicle has reported. Local authorities do not have the authority to remove the child from his care. The facts of the case are not altogether clear from media reports, but children's rights advocates are alarmed.
"In the past six years, 200 children have come to Israel via foreign surrogacy," said NCC Executive Director Dr Yitzhak Kadman. "This case is a good wake-up call that there are changes that have to be made." Overseas surrogacies have risen steeply in recent years because of the difficulties in organising them in Israel, especially for homosexual couples.
A bill regulating surrogacy is stalled in India's Parliament. In the meantime, there is no effective regulation, Rekha Agarwal, a Supreme Court lawyer dealing with adoption cases, told the Indian website DNA.