This short paper for one of the world's leading bioethics journals introduces readers to medical tourism - the travel of patients from their home country to another for the primary purpose of seeking medical treatment. The paper divides medical tourism into three types: (1) Medical tourism for services illegal in both the patient's home and destination countries (e.g., organ transplant tourism); (2) Medical tourism for services that are illegal in the patient's home country but legal in the destination country (e.g., some forms of fertility tourism, euthanasia tourism, experimental drug tourism); (3) Medical tourism for services legal in both the home and destination country (e.g., traveling abroad for a heart valve or hip replacement). The paper then discusses several difficult ethical and regulatory challenges posed by each type of medical tourism.
The safety of UK couples who travel abroad for in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment is being jeopardised by the lack of uniform clinical and safety regulations, say fertility organisations. Women are at greater risk of multiple births, which increases the danger of medical complications to mother and baby, says a new report by the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology and the International Federation of Fertility Societies. A survey of more than 100 countries looking at the rules and regulations relating to assisted conception, particularly IVF, found that some countries have high numbers of multiple pregnancy because of the number of embryos they transfer during assisted conception.
Most women who travel from the United Kingdom to other countries for infertility treatment do so because of the long wait and shortage of donor gametes at home, show the results of a survey of “fertility tourists” from the UK. Of 51 women interviewed for the ongoing research project, more than 70% needed donor treatment, most of them with donor eggs or embryos but some with donated sperm, the principal investigator, Lorraine Culley, told a conference in London.
With surrogacy costing up to $70,000 in the US compared to only $12,000 in India, many Western women are outsourcing pregnancy abroad. It's a multi-million dollar industry that sees rural Indians receive the equivalent of 10 years' salary. Over the course of nine months, we follow the lives of two women, who in each other seek solutions to the problems of poverty and infertility, and explore whether it's a relationship that is exploitative or mutually beneficial.
The high cost of surrogacy in Europe and the US means many Western women are outsourcing pregnancy abroad. Carolina, from Ireland, travelled to India to pay Sonal to carry her baby. The World Service's Your World followed the two women as they came to terms with the emotional costs of the surrogacy.
Truth is often stranger than fiction, and nowhere is this more evident than when examining the real stories related to international commercial surrogacy that have occurred in the last few years. This Article utilizes these recent cases to analyze this industry using a bioethical lens. Bioethicists use stories effectively to demonstrate how theory and normative ideals apply to real world situations. By detailing examples of some of the unique scenarios that have arisen in far-flung cities of India, the United States, and the Ukraine, this Article highlights some of the bioethical dilemmas such stories raise. This Article examines these stories using the classic theoretical bioethics framework to demonstrate the need for clarification of state or national regulation and international guidelines related to international surrogacy.
AT LEAST 15 children born through surrogacy to Irish couples abroad are caught in a legal limbo which has left them either stateless or unable to get an Irish passport. This is despite the recommendations of the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction – established more than a decade ago – which urged the Government to regulate surrogacy. Meanwhile, many parents say delays in resolving their children’s legal status is a source of ongoing stress and is likely to involve expensive legal action. One Dublin couple in their 30s, who have been stranded abroad in India for several weeks, say they are “tearing their hair out” waiting to have their child’s status regularised. “We are tired and angry with the Irish authorities,” said one of the parents, who declined to be named.
MINISTER FOR Justice Alan Shatter is to publish official guidelines next month to assist parents who plan to have children via surrogate mothers abroad in a move aimed at preventing babies ending up in “legal limbo”. However, he was unable to say when long-promised legislation for the wider area of assisted human reproduction would be published. Mr Shatter told The Irish Times that pressure on the Government in drawing up legal changes linked to the EU-IMF bailout meant there was no guarantee of when legislation would be ready. He said a “consultative process” has begun between officials in the various Government departments and hoped significant progress would be made next year. His comments come at a time of growing concern for the welfare of 15 children born by surrogacy abroad who are now either stateless or unable to get passports.