Panel recommends full ban on surrogacy

An advisory panel set up by the Science Council of Japan is recommending a ban on all surrogate births, including criminal penalties against anyone involved in surrogacy for profit.

The advisory panel, set up at the request of the government, is to file a final report by the end of March.

Panel members will urge the Diet to pass legislation along the lines of the recommendations.

However, opinion among Diet members is widely split on the issue. In addition, with the Diet's upper and lower chambers controlled by opposing parties, the possibility of early passage of any such bill is doubtful, experts said.

While guidelines from the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology ban surrogacy, they have not stopped clinics in Japan from conducting in vitro fertilization.

A clinic in Nagano Prefecture has conducted many surrogate births, including one case in which a woman in her late 50s was a surrogate mother for her daughter.

Some Japanese couples wanting children have also gone abroad to seek surrogate parents.

The most famous case involves the TV personality Aki Mukai and her husband Nobuhiko Takada, a former professional wrestler.

The couple filed a lawsuit seeking to compel the Shinagawa Ward office to enter twin boys born to a surrogate mother in the United States into the couple's family register.

The Supreme Court ruled against the couple in March 2007, but also included wording in the decision about the need for laws to clarify the status of surrogacy.

At Friday's meeting, the Science Council of Japan committee decided against approving surrogacy.

Some members questioned the effects on a child born to a woman who has no biological ties to it. Others questioned use of another person's body as a reproductive tool.

The committee stressed the need for surrogacy laws and suggested such a law include penalties for conducting surrogacies for profit, including penalizing those seeking surrogacy, anyone serving as a broker and any doctors involved.

The committee's recommendations also indicated those who go abroad in search of surrogacy would likely also face penalties.

However, some committee members questioned the need to punish doctors, citing public opinion polls that have found a majority of respondents in favor of surrogacy.

Some committee members also wondered if the central government should prohibit the right to give birth. They were concerned about women who cannot become pregnant for medical reasons and thus cannot hope to carry on their blood line without the use of a surrogate mother.

The committee also said debate should focus on possible exceptions to a ban on surrogacy, such as in clinical research conducted under central government oversight.

The committee's lack of consensus means further debate is needed before the final report is sent to the central government in March.

Committee members said any surrogacy law the Diet might pass should be based on the committee's recommendations.

However, history shows such a bill may not be easy to pass. In 2003, an advisory panel to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare issued a recommendation against surrogacy.

However, Diet deliberations went nowhere. Some lawmakers questioned whether a total ban was a good idea.

Some ruling coalition members say it won't be easy to pass legislation on an issue in which opinions are so divided along personal lines.(IHT/Asahi: January 21,2008)