VietNamNet Bridge – Even as the demand for surrogate births is increasing the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Justice remain undecided on whether to allow such births under the law.

Pregnant women listen to health care advise during pregnancy in Tu Du Maternity Hospital. Surrogate pregnancy is scientific achievement and fulfills the desire of women to become a mother. (Photo: SGGP)

The rate of infertile couples is increasing drastically in the country. As per a Ministry survey, 7.7 percent of Vietnamese couples or one million couples are struggling with infertility.

Tu Du Maternity Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City receives an average of 200-300 patients everyday for infertility tests and treatment, while it was ten cases just 10 years ago.

Dr. Hoang Thi Diem Tuyet, Tu Du Maternity Hospital’s deputy director and chief of Infertility Ward, around 250 women undergo Intra Uterine Insemination (IUI), a procedure that involves placing sperms inside a woman’s uterus to facilitate fertilization and approximately 200 cases of invitro fertilization per month.

The causes of infertility among women can involve various medical problems such as fallopian tube damage or blockage, uterine fibroids or ovulation disorders, and also unsafe abortions and infection in sexual organs.

For males, less sperm count, inability to move (motility) or ability to fertilize the egg could lead to infertility. Women with abnormal wombs, without wombs or heart disease should hire people to give birth as they are not able to become pregnant.

L in Phu Nhuan District got married three years ago yet she is not pregnant. Examined by physicians many times, she was diagnosed with fibroid that cannot enable her to have a baby of her own.

She has undergone Intra Uterine Insemination twice but it has failed, so she resorted to invitro fertilization which doctors told her had a low success rate. Exhausted by years of infertility, she thought of getting surrogate birth but was told to conduct it surreptitiously in the country or go to Thailand where it is very costly.

At a conference to review results of Marriage and Family Law recently, Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Viet Tien said surrogate pregnancy is scientific achievement and fulfills the desire of women to become a mother.

While Nguyen Huy Quang, chief of the legal department of the health ministry, said giving hired birth destroys biological regulation that the baby is the child of a woman who gives birth, but because of hired pregnancy, the surrogate mother must give back the child to the real mother. However, he is afraid about conflicts between real mother and surrogate mother.

The Ministry of Justice said the law prohibits giving hired birth to deter people from selling children.

The ministries are considering new laws of Marriage and Family to submit to the National Assembly; however, it is undecided as yet as deliberations continue.

Source: SGGP