Japan’s LDP Drafts Bill On Surrogacy

15.06.2012

Surrogacy is a very debatable issue where many factors have to be considered. On one hand we have childless couples, desperate to consider alternative means for conception. And on the other hand we have religious perspectives, societal stigma and legal implications to consider. Japan’s stand has moved from a complete ban to limited consideration, since the issue is still very sensitive amongst the leaders. For the moment, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has set up a panel that will draft a preliminary outline for a Bill that will approve surrogate births and third-party egg donations, but with some set rules and guidelines.

Surrogacy has two sides to it, on one hand we can recall TV celebrity Aki Mukai’s case, where she went abroad to find a surrogate mother and came back with a beautiful twins. And on the flipside we have the case of Baby Manjhi, who was conceived when a Japanese husband’s sperm and an anonymous donor’s egg was implanted in the womb of an Indian surrogate. The case drew a lot of attention, because by the time the baby was born, the Japanese couple had separated and filed for divorce. Her grandparents later took her in.

For every heartbreaking story there more than enough heartening ones, The Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology (JSOG) has initiated an internal committee to examine the proposal, and will give its opinion on the matter by end of summer. Although the technology is in place, there is no supportive legal framework in place for assisted reproductive measures. Going by the current JSOG guidelines, egg donations and surrogacy are very complicated legal issues as the parent-child relationship is not approved. This new draft looks at approving in-vitro fertilization achieved through the use of donated sperm, eggs, and fertilized eggs. However the proposal bans surrogate births with exceptions to cases where couples are unable to conceive because of medical conditions, example a past hysterectomy. Such couples are expected to seek a family court approval before they opt for this procedure.

As a precaution against abuse, any commercial egg and sperm donations, as well as surrogate births, would be penalized. The good news in it all is that the committee is also considering amending the current civil code in such a way that the recipient of the third party’s eggs will be considered the ‘legal’ mother of the child. So in the case of surrogacy as well, the woman requesting the surrogacy will be regarded as the legal mother.

In other reports, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare committee has approved third-party-based assisted reproductive treatment in several cases and the Science Council of Japan approves surrogate births on an experimental basis, however no legislation on the issue been formulated so far.

japandailypress.com