Macau (MNA) – The Macau SAR Health Bureau announced on Wednesday it will conduct a public consultation on a law draft for the regulation and strictly supervision of infractions related to the use of assisted reproduction techniques.
The consultation period will be held between December 4 and January 12 of 2018, with the Health Bureau saying it specifically wants to inquire the population on the “moral and ethic” issues of assisted reproduction techniques.
The legislation that will be under consultation proposes a eight year prison sentence for the beneficiaries of unauthorised assisted reproduction techniques, with a married couple that committed an infraction liable to receive this penalty.
The law proposal only considers as admissible patients to the treatments, legally married woman with at least 18 years and that doesn’t suffer from mental illness issues.
An MOP80,000 fine could also be imposed to individuals infringing the law and with collective institutions that provided the services liable to being shut down or receive a fine of MOP120,000.
The law will attempt to regulate the application of medically assisted procreation techniques such as artificial insemination; in vitro fertilization; the transfer of embryos, gametes (spermatozoa / oocytes) and zygotes; pre-implantation genetic diagnosis.
It also specifically prohibits reproductive cloning; gender selection with the exception of the special circumstances of high risk of genetic disease linked to gender; chimeras or hybrids; replacement maternity; embryo creation for scientific research and experimentation; purchase or sale of ova, semen or embryos.
In May of 2017 the Health Bureau divulged instructions for the use of medically assisted procreation techniques and it currently regulates the basic requirements of health professionals who intend to use the technique of medically assisted procreation.
However the Health Bureau stated today that these regulations didn’t include a criminalization of infringements that could serve as an effective deterrent for the use of these procedures.
As of now only public hospital Conde de S. Januário is authorised to provide medically assisted procreation techniques with the Health Bureau currently only private hospital Kiang Wu has requested the department for a license to provide these services.
Just in the period after June of this year the health Bureau has detected seven institutions – six clinic and one hospital – that have conducted infractions related to the provision of medically assisted procreation techniques, with four establishments seeing their licence temporally suspended.
One of the suspended establishments was TAIVEXMALO Day Hospital, located in the Venetian Resort, which was suspended this month for 180 days until May 21 of 2018.
At that time the Health Bureau stated the suspension was due to the practice of medically assisted procreation; trafficking and smuggling of cancer treatment drugs and due to the lack of hygiene and safety conditions for the provision of health care.
The Medical Center Era, Ai Wei Fu Medical Centre and Mayo Medical Centre were also suspended for periods between 25 to 90 days, while the Ever Link Medical Centre, AMBO Medical Centre and the New Hope Medical Center received fines from MOP6,000 to MOP30,000.
