VCs & PEs Have Destroyed Ethical Medical Practice Says This Padma Shri in Medicine From Karan Johan to Tushar Kapoor, surrogacy has given hope to many aspiring parents.
By Aashika Jain
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A pioneer in the field of Assisted Reproduction, Dr Kamini A Rao, is a woman on a mission.
Credited with the birth of India's first SIFT baby, she is among those who believe introducing bills like the surrogacy bill will not curb commercial surrogacy rather encourage wrong practices.
Her more than 35 years of experience in the field of assisted reproduction India says the country needs detailed attention by the experts in healthcare services - those who are well versed and have the potential to decide on behalf of all the women in India.
She is particularly happy with healthcare startups
Calling them one of the most striking changes that healthcare has witnessed in years, she credits them of having taken medical genre to an entirely different segment.
Rao believes various apps that give instant information on various doctors in one's locality along with contact details and consultation times are an amazing initiative.
"Modern healthcare apps are bridging the gap between the doctor and patient, also by providing information in few seconds. Imagine a blood test previously, which could take 2 days for the reports to be received by the patients and then they would have to come to the doctor, which is a time consuming process. But now with these healthcare startups and the various applications, now the doctor can view the reports in an e-mail and that too in just few hours," Rao tells Entrepreneur India.
She however feels investors are not the answer for the various problems in the health sector.
"Venture Capitalists, PEs and the corporatization of healthcare has destroyed the foundation and ethical medical practice and put profitability before patient care traditions of," Rao says.
In the field of reproductive medicine, Rao dons many hats.
She was the first to set up the first Semen Bank in South India as well as engineer the region's first babies born via Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection and Laser Assisted Hatching technique.
Trained in the United Kingdom she returned to India to set up the Reproductive Medicine Clinic, BACC Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. The company's Centre for Reproductive Medicine Milann attracts aspiring parents from all over the world.
Surrogacy Bill a knee-jerk reaction to celebrity cases of surrogacy
She believes that the government is putting the Surrogacy Bill out of context and calls for the Surrogacy Bill has to be a part of the ART bill.
Rao says it is unfortunate that there are laws being implemented that ban single parents from opting for surrogacy such as a person has to be aged 25 to go in for assisted reproduction, but the age for marriage is 21 years.
"To be fair by legalizing surrogacy the government is trying to pull it out of the grey area it is in currently. However, it is necessary for the government to look into the clauses of the current bill and make necessary amendments to the same before passing it as a law," says Rao.
