A
US-based commercial surrogacy agency, Surrogacy Cambodia, has begun marketing
to US citizens “personalised services” – including surrogacy and gender
selection – to be carried out at a high-end IVF clinic in the Kingdom.
And while
local IVF clinics continue to deny offering surrogacy services – which remain
in a legal grey area – the links between the proliferating online surrogacy
agencies and the brick-and- mortar clinics are becoming increasingly clear.
“Surrogacy
Cambodia’s customized packages in in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), and matching
services for surrogate mothers, egg donors and private sperm donors, are
designed to give couples a wider scope of options in having children,” the
Orange County, California, firm said in a press release on Saturday.
On its
website, the agency markets gender selection and in-vitro fertilisation (IVF)
services to heterosexual couples as well as surrogacy services to gay couples
and IVF to lesbians.
The
website also features photos of egg donors, more than 50 available surrogate
mothers and images of a villa where the surrogate mothers stay during their
pregnancy.
Surrogacy
Cambodia did not respond to requests for additional information yesterday.
However,
on its website, it claims to have successfully impregnated 60 surrogate mothers
in Cambodia between November 2015 and April this year.
The
Cambodian surrogacy industry – which has rapidly expanded after foreign
surrogacy was banned or restricted in India, Thailand and Nepal last year – has
remained shrouded in secrecy amid fears that publicity could force the
government to ban the practice.
The
Ministry of Interior said in 2014 that commercial surrogacy was illegal,
however, the practice has remained in a legal grey area as the government
develops specific IVF and surrogacy laws.
Health
Minister Mam Bunheng yesterday asked for a formal letter to be submitted before
answering questions on the issue. He said he had not received a letter the Post
submitted to the Ministry of Health previously.
More than
a dozen agencies now have websites advertising surrogacy services in Cambodia,
with each pregnancy costing upwards of $30,000; however, none approached by the
Post have been willing to speak openly about their businesses.
Likewise,
none of the four domestic fertility clinics able to provide the procedures
necessary will openly admit to providing IVF for surrogacy.
However,
on the Surrogacy Cambodia Facebook page it claims to have an “exclusive joint
partnership with First Fertily [sic] Phnom Penh (FFPP) Clinic in Phnom Penh”, a
high-end Hong Kong-owned clinic based in the Vattanac Tower.
On its
website, the agency claims to make use of the services of two of First
Fertility’s specialists Dr Sovannaroth Ty and Dr Du Xiaoping. The site also
features photos of the clinic.
When
asked if First Fertility had a commercial relationship with Surrogacy Cambodia,
a receptionist for First Fertility, who refused to give her name, yesterday
said the clinic only had a partner clinic in Thailand and focused on IVF.
“However,
there is no surrogacy service and we don’t offer surrogacy service,” she said.
“In case a customer chooses to do surrogacy, maybe we can provide that
service,” she added, before hanging up.
When
asked via email whether any US citizens had applied for citizenship for
surrogate children born in Cambodia, spokesman Courtney Woods said the US
Embassy did not release that kind of information.
Woods
said the State Department offered information for US citizens considering
assisted reproductive technology at its website but had no specific information
for Cambodia.
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