I refer to your report headlined, 'Hospital to investigate womb-rent case' (South China Morning Post, May 20), and would like to furnish your readers with the following information to enable them to have a proper perspective of our stand towards surrogacy.
Following the release of the Consultation Paper on the Draft Reproduction Technology Bill, the Central Co-ordinating Committee on Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the Hospital Authority has discussed the paper and agreed with the proposal that surrogacy should be actively discouraged and that commercial surrogacy, and its arrangement or advertising, should be a criminal offence.
Under no circumstance will commercial surrogacy be carried out in public hospitals. Even in other cases where surrogacy is contemplated on the basis of clinical judgment, there are many ethical issues to be considered. The endorsement of the Ethics Committee would need to be sought.
We realise that discussion on the Reproduction Technology Bill is still under way. The Hospital Authority and its hospitals would strictly comply with the requirements of the legislation on the practice of Reproductive Technology once they were passed into law.
ANITA LEE Deputy Director (Public Affairs) Hospital Authority
