If you are a young woman below 25 and thought you could make money by being a surrogate mother, Suba South MP Millie Odhiambo is just about to ruin your plans.
She has sponsored a Bill which if approved will make surrogacy for women below 25 illegal.
Surrogacy is an arrangement in which a woman agrees to become pregnant, carry the pregnancy to term, give birth to a child or children though the child is for another person who will assume parenthood.
The Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill also says that where a man donates sperm to be used for fertilisation, the man will not claim child ownership.
It says that a surrogate will automatically cede parental rights of the child upon birth, unless there is a contrary agreement.
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Millie told the National Assembly Health committee that the intention of the clause is to deal with cheats who emerge after death to claim that they were children of so and so.
Speaking when she briefed the committee at Parliament building on her proposed Bill, the third- time legislator said infertile couples can now revive their hopes of parenthood adding that the Bill seeks to regulate and protect surrogacy. In Kenya, it is commonly known as In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF), a process where an egg is fertilised by a sperm outside the body – in a test-tube – after which the embryo is transferred to the woman’s womb.
Speaking when she appeared before the National Assembly Health committee, Millie said barren men and women are suffering in silence, adding that passage of the Bill would unlock their hopes.
“In the last Parliament two male MPs approached me and told me of their challenges and how they had children through assistance. Men are unable to speak about the challenges they go through,” Millie told the committee chaired by Murang’a Woman Representative Sabina Chege at Parliament buildings. Millie was briefing the committee on the new Bill after a similar one died in Senate.
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