Starting next year, Dutch surrogate motherhood clinics will begin offering their services to same-sex couples who dream of their own children.
According to the popular Dutch edition “Algemeen Dagblad”, it was still not possible for same-sex couples to have a child through surrogate motherhood due to the existing strict restrictions. Now, after the changes to the current Embryo Act, it has become absolutely real, including for women with cancer.
For the first time, the technology of assisted reproductive medicine, in particular, the IVF procedure, was used in the Netherlands by Dr. G. H. Zeylmaker and others by Dr.A.Th Alberda in 1983, and after that. The first pregnancy achieved by replanting a frozen embryo was recorded. IVF legislation and related procedures were established in the Netherlands in 1985. However, the largest political party, the Christen-Democratisch Appèl (CDA) considered it a dangerous trend contributing to the abuse of the use of genetic material. Therefore, in 1985, a regulation was adopted that restricted the use of IVF in hospitals, with the exception of the clinical departments of several universities that were engaged in research activities.
In 2002, the Netherlands adopted the Law on Embryos Regulating the Use of Assisted Reproductive Technologies, prohibiting both human cloning and the creation of living organisms by an artificial hybrid path. The law makes a distinction between cloning for reproductive purposes and the science-oriented transfer of somatic cell nuclei (SCNT) and establishes a five-year moratorium on SCNT. Creating human embryos for research purposes is illegal in accordance with the law. In 2007, the Dutch cabinet ministers tried to reconsider their policies, but for a long time, there were no significant changes in this matter. Until recently! Until in 2016 the Dutch government announced that it intends to allow the cultivation of human embryos “in strict and limited conditions” for scientific research, thus giving hope to fruitless parents who are trying to become pregnant.
As a result, the Ministry of Health of the Netherlands decided to allow the carrying out of fertility treatments for patients suffering from hereditary or congenital diseases, including people who became infertile as a result of treatment at an early age.
In this way, the Netherlands is gradually changing its embryonic research laws, which until now have allowed tests only on embryos remaining from IVF.
And now, finally, this year, changes have been made to the Law on embryos, which remove the strict restrictions and expand the criteria for using surrogate motherhood programs!
Speaking on the De Monitor television program, Marc Scheijvan, head of the Nij Geertgen clinic in Elsendorp, said: “I think this is just nonsense when same-sex couples, but also, women with cancer problems must go abroad to fulfill their cherished desire to have their own children when we ourselves have the necessary and sufficient medical and technological experience.”
Based on “The Attitude” and “The Gardian”
