GESTIÓN EN SALUD PÚBLICA: Cambodia bans commercial surrogacy

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Cambodia bans commercial surrogacy

Cambodia bans commercial surrogacy

Bioedge

Cambodia bans commercial surrogacy

by Xavier Symons | 5 Nov 2016 | 2 comments

Cambodia has become the latest South East Asian nation to ban commercial surrogacy, with the country’s government issuing a proclamation late last month outlawing the practice.

The Cambodian health ministry distributed a letter this week to about 50 surrogacy providers and brokers operating in Phnom Penh, informing them of the new ban and asking all medical professionals to comply with the injunction.

"Surrogacy, one of a set of services to have a baby by assisted reproductive technology, is completely banned," the letter said.

The ministry said commercial sperm donation is also banned and clinics and specialist doctors providing in-vitro fertilisation services will require ministry permission to operate.

The government did not specify what, if any, penalties would be incurred for violating the ban.

Sam Everingham, global director of the consultancy Families Through Surrogacy, slammed the "abrupt" ban and said it would likely trigger panic among expectant parents and surrogates now facing an uncertain future. "This sudden change does no favours to surrogates or children given the lack of information and lack of clarity," he told AFP.

The Cambodian ban will likely increase surrogacy costs globally, driving foreigners to countries like Ukraine, Georgia, Greece, Canada and the US which have protective laws in place. However surrogacy costs in the US can be as high as $200,000 while agencies charge far less in developing countries like Cambodia.

- See more at: http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/cambodia-bans-commercial-surrogacy/12079#sthash.nWDgro8U.dpuf

Bioedge

With the bicentenary of the publication of Mary Bysshe Shelley’s book on human enhancement approaching in 2018, it may be worth reviewing the dramatic bioethical challenge faced by Dr Frankenstein.

You may recall that Dr Victor Frankenstein assembled an eight-foot, highly intelligent, powerful male humanoid. His creation escaped but returned to plead for a female companion. With her he would emigrate to “the vast wilds of South America”. However, the good doctor fears that their progeny would compete with humankind. “A race of devils would be propagated upon earth who might make the very existence of the species of man a condition precarious and full of terror.”

So he destroys his female project. Did he make the right decision? Would these creatures really have destroyed the human race?

An article in the journal BioScience has crunched the numbers for us using “competitive exclusion” theory. It turns out that had the couple escaped to South America, they would have multiplied and spread, and eliminated us within 4000 years – 4,188 years to be exact. So, at least within a framework of utilitarian ethics, Frankenstein was right. He deserves the gratitude of BioEdge readers