A legal footing will ensure the technology which helps bring infertile couples

IDA HUI WAI-HA watches her nine-month-old son, Ethan, fidgeting on the hotel sofa. A smile lights up her face. She radiates happiness. A year ago, with only dim hopes of conceiving, she and her husband began the process to adopt a child.

But then their breakthrough came with intracytoplasmic sperm injection treatment (ICSI), and Ethan was conceived.

Ms Hui's joy is contrasted by another woman's despair. Lisa, 36, has had two failed attempts at assisted reproduction. She says she will try twice more.

One in 15 couples in Hong Kong has infertility problems and with more marrying later in life, and more women pursuing careers, gynaecologists say the number of people seeking technical help to reproduce is rising.

Even so, there is no legislation governing the industry. That is about to change. There has been a move to regulate since the early 1990s, and lawmakers have finished initial scrutiny of the Human Reproductive Technology Bill. It is due for its second reading in the Legislative Council before July. A Provisional Council on Reproductive Technology, to be followed by a permanent monitoring body, has also drafted a code of practice.

Two years into their marriage, Ms Hui and her American husband discovered that he had a low sperm count. They were already struggling; she had had one of her fallopian tubes removed after it became infected.

'When the doctor told me that we were infertile, I felt that the sky had fallen,' Ms Hui says. 'Given my Chinese background, it was very important for me to have my own son.' A gynaecologist referred them to the Prince of Wales Hospital's in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) centre. IVF is the medical term for producing a test-tube baby: removing an egg from the woman and mixing it with a prepared sperm sample outside the womb, and producing an embryo that can then be implanted.