The Cabinet on Friday decided to revoke its earlier decision to allow foreign couples to seek surrogacy service in the country.

The decision comes in the wake of recent Supreme Court’s interim order that

had asked to halt the surrogacy services until final hearing.

Health Minister Khaga Raj Adhikari confirmed the decision. He said in the lack of stringent law, there were reports of misuse of the services.   

The Cabinet meeting in December of 2014 had passed the proposal tabled by the Ministry of Health and Population, opening the door to foreign couples to have babies through surrogacy in the country.

In the decision, it was agreed that the surrogate mother also should be foreigners. However, many hospitals that have been running the services have also been employing Nepali women as surrogate mothers.

Surrogacy is a process where people wanting babies pay for another women to have their baby delivered. Doctors say two methods-traditional and gestational-are presently followed for surrogacy.

In traditional method, the sperm is artificially inseminated in the mother’s womb who goes on to deliver baby on behalf of the couple while in a relatively advance gestational method, the sperm and egg from a father and mother is first fertilised through In-Vitro Fertilisation and the embryo is placed in the surrogate mother’s womb.