Page 23 - ELITE PLUS MAGAZINE Vol 3

Several years before the most recent scandal regarding the country’s surrogacy business to rock Thailand, Dr Poonsak Waikwamdee – gynaecologist and fertility specialist at Bumrungrad International Hospital and SMC Fertility Center – sensed something unusual about the overseas demand for reproductive medicine in Thailand. There had been a lot of requests from abroad – around a hundred a month, asking whether the hospital could provide surrogacy services. Callers varied; some were legally married gay partners overseas, infertile couples, mothers with health problems and single women.“I declined those requests without hesitation,” Dr Poonsak told Elite+ in an exclusive interview. Assisted reproductive technology (ART), including in-vitro fertilization (IVF)and surrogacy, could bring in huge revenue but Bumrungrad, one of the country’s leading private hospitals, has a strict policy to abide by local laws and the ethical guidelines of the Medical Council of Thailand. ART has been permitted in the Kingdom on condition that those involved, such as surrogates, must be relatives of infertile couples and the practice not be for commercial purposes. But requests from overseas couples went beyond those restrictions, such as renting a surrogate’s womb and using donated eggs and sperm.Dr Poonsak has worked in ART for several decades. A graduate of Chulalongkorn University, he went to study abroad, including for a fellowship that permitted him to hone his professional skills with scientists who developed IVF to give birth toLouise Brown, known as the world’s first test-tube baby.”Working with cutting-edge science, Dr Poonsak’s view on surrogacy is a morally and ethically guided one. Calling surrogacy a “grey area”, he believes society is in need of moral perspective and awareness of children’s rights.Thai society might have a compassionate view of infertile couples but a relative unconcern with the rights of surrogated babies. “These surrogate babies do not have a chance to ask why they are born into the world,” he said. “Do we ever think about their rights? What will they think if their parents are homosexual couples?”At the same time, laws and enforcement governing ART still lag behind in terms of verifying the“All I can say at the moment is we are a pioneer of Japanese-style food in Myanmar and we’re successful at setting a high standard for our products and service.”Elite+ 21