Who are these people?Another question that keeps coming up … and there is no agreement as to the answer on this one either. In part 3 of this series, we review who are the people who get counted as medical tourists, and who counts them. Read more…
2016 is shaping up to be an exciting year for providers of medical travel (or is it medical tourism?).
Medical Travel Quality Alliance expects that these will be the trends and issues of 2016 for the medical tourism industry, and will affect nearly all segments of the industry in nearly all countries around the globe.
The demand by medical tourists for in vitro fertilization IVF, gender selection, commercial surrogacy, and birthing places keeps growing.
After Thailand and India restricted commercial surrogacy, some surrogacy agencies moved operations to Cambodia and Nepal. In late 2015, Nepal and Mexico – which had allowed commercial surrogacy in the state of Tabasco – made surrogacy illegal.
But this doesn’t stop demand.
Surrogacy tourism to Russia, Ukraine and Georgia Read more…
(Commercial Surrogacy Tourism, part 3)
Commercial surrogacy is an offshoot of the success of fertility treatments.
As more women consider in vitro fertilization an acceptable option for pregnancy, those for whom IVF is not possible refuse to deny themselves offspring and a full family life.
Adoption and surrogacy are the remaining choices. For some couples, arranging for a child through adoption tends to be more difficult and restricted than having a child through surrogacy. Read more…
(Commercial Surrogacy Tourism, part 2)
If there is no law against commercial surrogacy, can you break the law?
In Thailand, some ten years ago, a law had been proposed to parliament to ban commercial surrogacy, but it was not enacted.
When, in 2011, Thai doctors were involved in a case of Vietnamese women being used as surrogates in Thailand on behalf of a Taiwan agency, the law was brought up again but still not passed.
The Medical Council of Thailand has certain strictures against commercial surrogacy but these are ethical and moral considerations, not legal ones. Read more…
(Commercial Surrogacy Tourism, part 1)
1,000 babies are born annually in Thailand to surrogates on behalf of foreign couples and individuals.
Worldwide, an estimated 6,000 babies were born last year via commercial surrogacy tourism.
Yet seemingly overnight last month, police in Thailand shut down clinics, stopped parents with newborn infants from getting on flights out of the country, and sent some newborns off to orphanages.
Surrogacy services in Thailand have been available to all couples, foreign and domestic, gay or straight, and Read more…
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