Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1083510,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1083510/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 215,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "North Imenti, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Rahim Dawood",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2572,
        "legal_name": "Abdul Rahim Dawood",
        "slug": "abdul-rahim-dawood"
    },
    "content": "surrogate mother gives the baby to the rightful parents. There are health complications involved. So, when we say they are not going to be compensated, it is completely wrong and should be left between the person who is doing surrogacy and the people getting it. This Bill talks about storage. It says that the embryo can only be stored for a maximum of ten years. How many years can sperms and gametes be stored? It has not been mentioned in this Bill. It only says that the embryo can be stored for a maximum of ten years. There are times patients go for cancer or any other treatment. A male might want to keep his sperm for many years because they would want the wife to have it so that he can procreate in future even if he is not there. However, this Bill mentions it would be a written agreement or consent given by the male. If that would be put into a will, because somebody can forget to put it down in writing that they would be willing for their gametes to be given to a certain lady or something. I have seen the Report of the Departmental Committee on Health where they have deleted Clause 21. Clause 21 would be in conflict because it says that a person shall undertake assisted reproductive technology only for procreation purposes. However, the same is in conflict with the definition of who the father is in (d) because it says that the man did not donate his sperms for the process of assisted reproduction. Both of them are therefore, in conflict. One says you cannot donate your sperms if it is not for reproduction. How then, would you put that in (d) where it says that a man did not donate his sperms for the process of assisted reproduction and at the time of placing it into the woman, be it an embryo or the sperm. There is no question. If it was donated for procreation, then, there is no reason for a man to refuse it to be put into a woman or to be fertilised. Hon. Speaker, we need to take care where this is involved. We have seen many test tube babies or fertilizations where the person who has left his sperm in a sperm bank and the baby born has a different colour. There are many cases like this. There is even a song about a person who came from China with a baby with a different colour. We need to be sure that the facilities we are going to have in Kenya will be up to the highest standard. This is so that if today I have put a sperm in a sperm bank, the same thing will be used and not someone else's. Then there is a mistake. The licensing should be very thorough. The laboratories should be very thorough and we should have a proper way of doing those things. I agree that we need this though we need to refine this Bill. I will be speaking to Mheshimiwa Millie because there are a few things I think the Committee has deleted that should be there. There are some things we need to rectify like the ones where you are required to pay. The other issue is while you are carrying the baby and you divorce, what happens? Who then takes the responsibility for the baby? What if the mother then does not want the father to have anything to do with it? If it is a surrogate, what happens if the surrogate is not a real surrogate and runs away with the baby? Those are some of the other issues we need to sort out. I think I will leave it at that because there are many people who want to speak and 001 has asked me, but I would want to know the statutory storage period mentioned in the Bill. It is on 43 but, it needs to be mentioned how much someone is going to pay for that storage. This is because there can be a case of someone agreeing to store and one day that company fails and goes into bankruptcy. What will happen to that storage? Will it get lost and yet someone else had put all his energy into it? We need to know. We also need to know the charges. You could probably be charged - I am just giving a hypothetical figure of Kshs1,000 - when they know you need it after five years. They can even tell you Kshs100,000 or Kshs1 million. Since you are not capable of doing it again, you have to give that money because you need that sperm. Therefore, we need to have a figure put in law with the agreements. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}