MPs approve changes to test tube babies bill

Surrogate mothers should hand over babies to their parents immediately they are born.

This is one of the proposals of the In-vitro Fertilisation Bill, which has now been renamed Assisted Reproductive Technology bill by Mbita MP Millie Odhiambo.

The initial bill on the so-called on test tube babies, which was tabled in Parliament last year, had not specified the period within which the child should be handed over.

The changes to the bill compels a mother assisting a couple to get a child to hand over the baby to the parents "at the time of birth" and blocks the possibility of such a child remaining in the hands of the surrogate mother.

"The surrogate mother shall carry the child on behalf of the two persons and shall relinquish all parent rights to the child at birth unless a contrary intention is proved," reads the amendment passed by MPs yesterday.

The amendments to the proposed law were introduced by Seme MP, Dr James Nyikal (centre), in consultation with health practitioners.

"We consulted with many doctors before coming up with the changes," he said.

The Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill introduces new regulations in the use of assisted reproductive technology and makes regulations in relation to children born through such processes.

Assisted reproductive technology means fertilisation in a laboratory dish or test tube of sperm with eggs obtained from an ovary, whether or not the process of fertilisation is completed in the laboratory dish or test tube.

Assisting Mothers

The proposed law is aimed at assisting mothers who cannot give birth through natural ways to get children.

"The principle object of this bill is to anchor the existence and practice of assisted reproductive technology in statute law. While it is acknowledged that infertility affects a lot of women of reproductive age in Kenya... there has never been an attempt to clothe the practice of assisted reproductive technology in law," reads the bill.

The new changes also seek to block people from using alternative reproductive technologies for speculative purposes.

Such people must prove that they are a couple, which the bill defines as "a male and female who are in an association that may be recognised as a marriage under any law in Kenya".

The changes increase the period within which an embryo may be stored, giving a longer grace period to a woman whose egg has been fertilised in the laboratory but wishes to protract the period for its growth into an independent human being. The storage period has been increased from five to ten years.