The Southeast Asian nation has become the latest country to make commercial surrogacy illegal after bans on the practice in other parts of the world sparked a boom in Cambodia’s unregulated baby business.
Surrogacy agencies began popping up in the small country after former surrogacy hotspots such as Thailand and India banned foreigners from the services following a series of scandals and exploitation concerns. With cheap medical costs and no laws excluding gay couples or single parents, Cambodia quickly absorbed much of the demand.
But a government ruling, signed by the nation’s health minister last week, stated that surrogacy was now “absolutely banned.” The proclamation, asked medical professionals to comply with the injunction, though it did not identify a legal consequence.
Phon Puthborey, spokesman for the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, said the government was working on other regulatory schemes to prevent rights abuses in the controversial industry, which is outlawed is most countries.
US-based surrogacy agency Sensible Surrogacy, who arrange surrogacy services for Europe and North America, said that the wording of the edict was “brief and vague”. They also commented that the ban was made by a ‘prakas’, which is a less official public declaration:
“The result is that while surrogacy is currently banned, there is no legal enforcement for the prohibition, no process to determine if the prohibition has been broken, and no punitive measures to dissuade clinics from breaking the ban. In essence, clinics and service providers are now on the “honor system” regarding the new restrictions.”
The neighbouring Thai government also passed a law last year banning foreign couples from using Thai women as surrogates after a series of controversies, including custody battles, that tainted the lucrative industry. In one such controversy, authorities found nine babies in a Bangkok apartment that had been fathered by a Japanese man using Thai surrogate mothers.
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