An IVF procedure being performed at Hung Vuong General Hospital in HCM City. (Photo courtesy of Hung Vuong General Hospital)
HCM City (VNS/VNA) - TheMinistry of Health has given sanction to Hung Vuong General Hospital in HoChi Minh City to carry out surrogate pregnancies on humanitarian grounds,making it the country’s fourth public facility to be approved.
The hospital’s director, Dr Hoang ThiDiem Tuyet, said applications were already coming in for surrogacyprocedures.
Surrogacy is a form of assistedreproductive technology in which an embryo is created using an egg and spermproduced by a couple and transferred to the surrogate’s uterus.
The Law on Marriage and Family wasamended to allow surrogacy in 2015.
To be eligible, a clinic must beperforming at least 1,000 cycles of IVF (in vitro fertilisation) per year.
Surrogacy is a highly complex processthat requires among other things extensive counselling and legal assessment.
Vietnam’s first surrogate baby was bornin 2016 at Hanoi’s Central Maternity Hospital to a 38-year-old woman from thenorthern province of Ninh Binh.
The Law on Marriage and Family allowsclose relatives to become surrogate mothers and surrogacy is permitted only incases where the woman, for health reasons, is physically incapable of havingchildren.
A surrogate mother must be between 21and 40 and physically healthy and already have at least one child. If sheis married, she must also have her husband’s consent. A woman can be asurrogate only once.
The three public hospitals previouslypermitted by the ministry for surrogacy are the National Hospital ofObstetrics and Gynecology in Hanoi, the General Hospital in Hue city and the TuDu Obstetrics Hospital in HCM City.
My Duc General Hospital in HCM Cityis the only private facility to be approved.
The fee is equal to an IVF procedure,which costs an average of 60 million VND (2,570 USD).
In Vietnam, around 20,000 cases of IVFare performed every year, according to the ministry.-VNS/VNA
VNA
