An IVF procedure being performed at Hung Vuong General Hospital in HCM City. (Photo courtesy of Hung Vuong General Hospital)
HCM City (VNS/VNA) – The
Ministry of Health has given in Ho
Chi Minh City to carry out on ,
making it the country’s fourth public facility to be approved.
The hospital’s director, Dr Hoang Thi
Diem Tuyet, said applications were already coming in for surrogacy
procedures.
Surrogacy is a form of assisted
reproductive technology in which an embryo is created using an egg and sperm
produced by a couple and transferred to the surrogate’s uterus.
The Law on Marriage and Family was
amended to allow surrogacy in 2015.
To be eligible, a clinic must be
performing at least 1,000 cycles of IVF (in vitro fertilisation) per year.
Surrogacy is a highly complex process
that requires among other things extensive counselling and legal assessment.
Vietnam’s first surrogate baby was born
in 2016 at Hanoi’s Central Maternity Hospital to a 38-year-old woman from the
northern province of Ninh Binh.
The Law on Marriage and Family allows
close relatives to become surrogate mothers and surrogacy is permitted only in
cases where the woman, for health reasons, is physically incapable of having
children.
A surrogate mother must be between 21
and 40 and physically healthy and already have at least one child. If she
is married, she must also have her husband’s consent. A woman can be a
surrogate only once.
The three public hospitals previously
permitted by the ministry for surrogacy are the National Hospital of
Obstetrics and Gynecology in Hanoi, the General Hospital in Hue city and the Tu
Du Obstetrics Hospital in HCM City.
My Duc General Hospital in HCM City
is 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 IVF
are performed every year, according to the ministry.-VNS/VNA
Source: VietnamPlus
