Aggregated News
The Science Council of Japan's subcommittee on reproductive assistance medicine recently issued a report that said surrogate births should, in principle, be prohibited through legislation.
It concluded that surrogate births, in which fertilized eggs are placed in the womb of a surrogate mother, should be banned, with the exception of further clinical research that would be overseen by a public organization.
The Suwa Maternity Clinic in Nagano has conducted eight surrogacy procedures.
However, the recommendation reflected divisions on the subcommittee over whether surrogate births should be banned, with some members urging total prohibition, while others said it should be allowed in some cases.
The main argument cited by the committee for prohibiting surrogate births was the risk to the surrogate during delivery. The committee noted that about five in every 100,000 mothers die during childbirth, and the report concluded that passing this risk on to a third party is ethically troubling.
The report also argued that some women may be coerced into becoming surrogate mothers, and that children born through surrogacy may suffer psychologically if they are told the circumstances...