VietNamNet Bridge – Only three obstetrics hospitals should initially be allowed to introduce surrogacy, an assisted reproductive technique in which a woman carries a child in her uterus for another person, doctors and hospital executives told a workshop in HCM City yesterday, Oct 14.

To ensure health authorities can regulate and monitor the pilot programme, only Tu Du Obstetric Hospital in the South, the National Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the North, and the Hue Central Hospital in the central region should be permitted, they said.

Deputy Minister of Health Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Viet Tien said one year later more hospitals would be added to the list since there was much demand for the procedure.

The workshop was the last of several held to collect opinions to submit to the National Assembly at its upcoming session starting on October 20.

Regulations for the programme will be based on the Government Organisation Law, the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment, and the Law on Marriage and Family.

It will cover the use of in vitro fertilisation and surrogacy for humanitarian purposes, who can donate sperms and eggs as well as who can receive them, and several other issues.

Counselling from doctors before surrogacy was vital for couples, Tien said.

Professor Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong, chairwoman of the HCM City Society of Reproductive Medicine, said the regulations would be comprehensive and open the door for couples incapable of having children.

But some of the attendees pointed to the fact that it is silent on social and health insurance and maternity leave for surrogate mothers, and called for their inclusion.

VNS/VNN