New law seeks to limit surrogacy to persons with health complications

Only individuals with proven health complications that impede natural ability to reproduce will be eligible to contract the services of a surrogate, locking out those who may have opted for it on freewill.
This is one of the clauses contained in the Human Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill, 2023, tabled in Parliament on Tuesday. 
Surrogacy is when a woman carries a child within her uterus on behalf of another person or couple.

It is one form of Assisted Reproductive Treatment (ART). ART are medical procedures that assist individuals or couples in achieving pregnancy when natural conception is not possible or unlikely to be successful.
According to the law, licensed facilities will only offer or effect surrogacy arrangements services after a medical examination confirming inability or difficulty in natural conception/ child bearing.

Clause 21 of the Bill states:” An intending parent may opt for surrogacy where a registered medical practitioner has, upon examination of the intending parent, established that-the intending parent suffers primary or secondary infertility; or the intending parent suffers health challenges which affect the intending parent's ability to reproduce”

The law also bars contracting of persons under the age of 18 for surrogacy. A registered medical practitioner who contravenes this commits an offence and is liable, to a fine of Shs10m or imprisonment not exceeding five years, or both.
An intending parent who wishes to get a child through surrogacy, shall enter into a written surrogacy agreement with a surrogate mother, and the carrier shall have no rights to the child.

“For avoidance of doubt, where a surrogate mother gives birth to a child under a surrogacy agreement, the surrogate mother shall not be a parent of the child born through surrogacy,” the bill  states.
Other forms of ART common in the country include In vitro fertilization (IVF) where an egg is removed from the woman's ovaries and fertilized with sperm in a laboratory. The fertilized egg, called an embryo, is then returned to the woman's womb to grow and develop AND, Intrauterine insemination (IUI).

According the object of the Bill, the increasing demand for, human assisted reproductive technology  due to the growing cases of primary and secondary infertility, and other health related challenges necessitates the enactment of “a law to protect persons seeking the human assisted reproductive technology services, providers of the services and children born through human assisted reproductive technology,”
Ms Sarah Opendi, the sponsor of the Bill told Parliament that it is intended to regulate the various fertility clinics that are operating without any piece of legislation.

“We have consulted all the stakeholders and to our surprise is that most countries that started do not have any legislation. Uganda will be one of the countries where they will benchmark if this Bill is passed,” she said.  
The proposed law sets stringent regulations for health facilities offering ART services. Facilities will be accredited annually by the minister of health, on recommendation by the Medical and Dental Practitioners Council, Already existing facilities will be given two years to conform to the requirements of the proposed law.

 Any accredited centres will be mandated to keep a register of their operations, which may be accessible to the public at a certain fee. The register, according to clause 27 will indicate the number of persons who have used ART services, number of children born through human ART, and the outcome of the services including success and failure rates.
Clause 33 seeks to protect confidentiality of users by introducing a fine of Shs20m, or five year imprisonment, or both, for illegal disclosure of this information.

The law also bars use of a medical practitioner from using own gamete or embryo or a gamete or embryo other than the one selected by the person. Contravention will attract imprisonment for life. The law also criminalizes the use of non-human genetic material,

Donation
The proposed law limits the age of donation of a gamete to persons above 18.
Individuals who wish to donate shall be free of any genetic diseases as will be prescribed by the Minister of Health. Where a registered medical practitioner carries out a medical examination on a person who intends to donate a gamete and the medical examination establishes that the person has a genetic disease, the registered medical practitioner shall not harvest a sperm or oocyte from the person.

The individual will enter an agreement with the facility or recipient specifying among others their consent, and how their embryo may be used.  They will also be required to specify their ethnic origin, medical history, physical traits and professional qualifications.
The new law is a tone down from an earlier proposal that had limited ART services to married couples.
Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa, who chaired the Tuesday sitting, referred to the Bill to the Committee on Health.

 Dr Richard Mugahi, the assistant commissioner, Department of Reproductive and Child Health at the Ministry of Health, without going into the contents of the Bill said a law is necessary to regulate ART services.
 “ART is not very old in Uganda. It came through the private sector so we developed a law. They were using international standard operating procedures, and there is necessity for a law. . Government is also investing in it and have already procured our equipment so we need legal framework,”” he said