Probe baby selling

Probe baby selling

Monday, March 3 2008

REVELATIONS that there is a burgeoning baby industry in Trinidad and Tobago yesterday prompted Dr Tim Gopeesingh to call for an immediate investigation into claims that babies are being offered for sale for $60,000.

“It should be investigated and something should be done to stop it immediately,” Gopeesingh said in reaction to yesterday’s exclusive Sunday Newsday story which revealed that the sale of babies via surrogate mothers is being practiced in this country with the complicity of private lawyers, doctors and at least one surrogacy agent known as “Suzy”.

“It should not be permitted unless there is a national debate on the whole process. This is a major ethical problem in Trinidad and Tobago,” Gopeesingh said.

The Caroni East MP called for the issue to be placed under the “rigid scrutiny” of a Parliament- appointed ethics committee. “The whole question of embryo transfer or surrogacy had to undergo rigid scrutiny in developed countries before it was introduced,” he noted. While there is currently no legislation outlawing the practice of offering up the services of surrogacy for a fee, Gopeesingh insists that this does not mean that the practice must be accepted.

“There is nothing condoning it,” he said.

According to Newsday’s report, the sale of babies is being run by a woman called “Suzy” who claims to have a pool of potential surrogate mothers and who offers her services to women unable to get pregnant. The women in this pool are screened by doctors to ensure optimal health and contracts are drawn up to bind all parties to the transaction legally. All bills, including legal and medical, are paid by the person seeking a surrogate mother and a base fee of $60,000 is payable in parts, with the final installment due upon the delivery of the child.

A Parliamentary Joint Select Committee was appointed back on 19 March 1999 with the mandate to consider the provisions of the Human Reproductive and Genetics Technology Bill. While the Bill lapsed in Parliament, it proposed a complete ban on persons acting as surrogate mothers and the engaging of commercial transactions in relation to surrogate mothers for a fee. The Bill was never fully considered by the 1999 JSC.

Yesterday Gopeesingh said surrogate birth was acceptable “within certain guidelines” but however its moral dimensions were too profound to leave unregulated. An ethics committee should not only examine the issue, he said, but also other human reproductive practices — storage of embryos, stem cell research, and artificial insemination.