Nayanthara-Vignesh Shivan announce birth of twin sons, TN govt to seek explanation about surrogacy

Vignesh Shivan shared the pictures showing Nayanthara and him fondly kissing the feet of the newly born, introducing them to the world as their sons

Chennai:

Tamil film industry’s power couple Nayanthara and Vignesh Shivan on Sunday announced that they have become parents to twin boys. Amid the good wishes flowing in, the couple’s announcement is snowballing into a controversy. While the duo has not made an official statement, reports say that the babies were conceived through surrogacy. Questions are being raised over whether procedures stipulated by the Indian surrogacy laws were followed by the couple. Nayanthara and Vignesh got married four months ago.

During a press conference on Monday, the questions were posed to Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian who has said that an inquiry will be conducted. “The surrogacy itself is subjected to a lot of debates. But, the law allows individuals to involve in surrogacy if they are above 21 years and below 36 years of age, with the approval of the family,” said the minister.

He also announced that he would direct the Directorate of Medical Services to conduct an inquiry into the matter. While commercial surrogacy is banned in India, the criterion is that the surrogate should be at least married once and should have her own child. As per the latest surrogacy regulation bill, in effect from January 25, 2022, the primary idea is the prohibition of commercial surrogacy and there will only be altruistic surrogacy, wherein except for the medical expenses and the insurance cover of the surrogate, no other charges or expenses are covered by the intending parents.