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{
    "id": 1369186,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1369186/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 365,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Funyula, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) Ojiambo Oundo",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for giving me this opportunity. I did not conclude consulting Hon. (Dr) Nyikal, but I will take care of myself. I stand to support the Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill that is before the House. As another speaker has indicated clearly, this is not the first time this Bill is coming to this House. I know it was here in the last Parliament, and we could not conclude it. Let me confess I was a bit skeptical and uneasy about this Bill. When it was being debated on the Floor of the House, I took a French leave deliberately because being a Catholic and an African man, there are some issues we find very difficult to deal with. With hindsight, I discovered that even in our family's larger network, we have ladies and men who have been unable to sire children through the natural process. This has obviously forced me to rethink and come to make a comment on this Bill. The Bill provides several professional solutions to a problem that has existed with us for many years. Since time immemorial, there has been infertility in human beings. Where I come from, we had a way of solving those issues through established networks that left the moral fabric of the society intact. However, I must admit that new times call for new approaches, and we must deal with it. Hon. Temporary Speaker, in my community, when a lady did not have children, the stigma associated with it had a lot of moral issues, and would cause a lot of stress. More importantly, a man who could not have children faced even more scrutiny and public shaming more than anything else. Naturally, we had a way of solving that problem. A man who could not have children and was married could contract a cousin or a relative who resembled him in one way or another to do the job in an arrangement we currently call ‘a contractor’. In that event, the kid would be born resembling him and the family, and there would be no suspicion at all. But of course, the problem would always remain when the lady could not have children. We did not have an arrangement where a woman could marry another woman to sire children for them. Therefore, we must find a way. Children are not just physical children. In many societies, they come with emotional attachment and are welfare insurance in old age. We hope that we will spend all our working life to take care of the children. And when we cannot take care of ourselves, the children will offer moral support or support us in our old age. The mere title of the Bill reference to technology leaves out an extremely important aspect: The traditional way we used to solve this problem. I would have used you as an example, but I will not since you are sitting on the Chair. Imagine a married lady and a man who cannot sire children for medical reasons, as they have clearly put it, and the lady contracts a husband's cousin to sire children. Whose are those children? We thought we could have institutionalised and legalised that particular aspect at this particular moment. Of course, technology found me. What I know about technology is a laboratory. But what about a natural process akin to adoption or something like that? When we come to the Committee of the whole House, if those issues are given enough time, and we have a bipartisan approach, I am sure we will address them. The Bill has very far-reaching issues. One is the definition of infertility. We must persuade the proposer of the Bill where they said that infertility means the inability to conceive after one year of unprotected coitus or any other proven medical condition preventing a couple from conception. Dr Nyikal was going to consult if one year of continuous activity without results could amount to infertility because there could be other emotional issues pertaining to it. 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."
}