Discussion on surrogacy and family issues in draft revised Marriage and Family Law

 The workshop, co-chaired by VWU Vice President Bui Thi Hoa and Former German Federal Minister of Justice Prof. Dr. Herta Daeubler-Gmelin, aimed at getting comments and inputs as a basis of more convincing arguments for the recommended amendments to the draft revised Marriage and Family Law. At the workshop, VWU Vice President Bui Thi Hoa shared that for the past 2 years since the Marriage and Family Law 2000 was approved to be revised, the VWU has been active in carrying out evaluation surveys o­n the Law implementation among women from different social walks of life and has received from them a lot of feedback and suggestions. The Vice President also expressed her happiness when many VWU’s recommendations and suggestions have been adopted by the Law Drafting Committee.

The participants had presentations and discussions o­n surrogacy and family issues from a perspective of protecting women’s legitimate rights and interests. In particular, altruisticsurrogacy (for humanitarian purposes) was a focus of discussion by all participants. Most of the opinions were for altruistic surrogacy due to the fact that many Vietnamese couples wish to have their own children but pregnancy is impossible. However, the participants also expressed their concerns since this is a complicated issue while there still exist loop-holes in the drafted Law which might be exploited and cause disadvantages for women and children.

Examples of the opinions are “the drafted Law should specify that when the intended parents die before the delivery or after the delivery but before the handing over, the child still has the right to legally inherit the intended parent/s’ assets” or “surrogacy should be piloted at o­ne or two major and well equipped medical centers at the early stage.”

Professor. Dr. Herta Daeubler-Gmelin highly appreciated the participants’ openness and enthusiasm and expressed her impression o­n their seriousness in approaching the issue. Despite some differences, Vietnam and Germany’s laws o­n family issues share a point in common that family issues are important to members in the society, but foremost, it is a women’s issue. Therefore, "the law must ensure women and children’s interests and position and women’s role must be acknowledged in the family relations", emphasized Prof. Dr. Herta Daeuble Gmelin.

Giving her feedback, VWU Vice President Bui Thi Hoa acknowledged that the ideas and suggestions discussed at the workshop are of quality, showing multi-dimensional approaches, helping to clarify the surrogacy and family issues. The participants’ opinions before, during and after the workshop will be collected, synthesized and submitted to the Drafting Committee by the VWU aiming at creating a legal corridor to best protect women and children’s rights and legitimate interests as well as to meet socio-economic development requirements and people's expectations.

The revised Law o­n Marriage and Family was adopted by Vietnam National Assembly o­n 19^th June 2014 and surrogacy for humanitarian purposes is accepted when it is agreed voluntarily by the sides concerned and recorded in a written document, according to the law.