Unmarried people will be allowed to freeze their gametes under the supervision of the Health Bureau (SSM) in case they are unable to have children in the future due to illness or late marriage, lawmaker-cum-restaurateur Andrew Chan Chak Mo, who heads the Legislative Assembly’s (AL) 2nd Standing Committee, told reporters yesterday.
Chan made the remarks after chairing a closed-door meeting of the committee, which is reviewing in detail a government-initiated bill regulating assisted reproductive technology (ART) services, aiming to allow childless couples to use ART services, but always subject to a string of strict rules.
A woman of childbearing age is broadly understood to be aged between 15 and 49.
A gamete is a reproductive cell (sperm in males or eggs in females), having only half of a complete set of chromosomes.
The bill proposes to prohibit ART beneficiaries from naming a specific donor, and the beneficiary and donor cannot be a close relative or adoptee, nor can they be divorced or de facto separated.
Under the bill, donors must be at least 18 years old, physically and mentally healthy and free of any hereditary or infectious diseases, Chan said.
According to Chan, the previous version of the bill proposed that unused gamete and testicular or ovarian tissue could be retained by the Health Bureau (SSM) for no more than 10 years. However, Chan noted that the latest version of the bill will no longer limit the retention time.
In addition, the previous version of the bill proposed that information on the implementation of ART services, as well as records of donors, beneficiaries and the children that are born due to ART services, would be collected by the Health Bureau and kept for 75 years, Chan said, adding that taking into account the prolongation of human life, the retention period will be increased to 100 years in the latest version of the bill.
Lawmaker-cum-restaurateur Andrew Chan Chak Mo (right), who chairs the legislature’s 2nd Standing Committee, poses yesterday after the committee’s closed-door meeting which is reviewing the government’s ART services bill, while the committee’s secretary, Lam Lon Wai, looks on. – Photo: Ginnie Liang
