VietNamNet Bridge - Deputy Minister of Health Mr. Nguyen Viet Tien says that the demand for surrogacy in Vietnam is fairly low, so the ministry will select only a few reliable hospitals to provide medical services for surrogacy.

Tien says the Ministry of Health is drafting a decree concerning reproductive technical issues for surrogacy, following the approval by the National Assembly of an amended Law on Marriage and Family, in which surrogacy will be allowed in Vietnam.

The decree does not prohibit implementation of surrogacy for HIV-infected persons, and will not set an age limit as before.

The current regulations stipulate that the oocyte donors must be under 35 years of age and those who want to do IVF must no older than 45.

According to Deputy Minister Nguyen Viet Tien, about 500-700 couples need surrogacy in Vietnam each year. With such numbers, Vietnam will need a few hospitals performing the related techniques, either state or private.

Each person is permitted to do surrogacy only once. The Ministry will control surrogate mothers via a specialized software to prevent the commercialization of surrogacy.

The cost for surrogacy in Vietnam is $2,000-3,000, compared to about $35,000 in the US.

The draft decree will take effect from January 1, 2015.

On June 19 the National Assembly passed the amended Marriage and Family Law, officially allowing surrogacy for humanitarian purposes. The surrogate mothers must be relatives of the couple, and have already had children. They can only be a surrogate mother one time.

Le Ha