A case involving what may be human semen, eggs and embryos smuggled across the Thai border in Nong Khai has sparked concern that the illegal surrogacy trade in Thailand has shifted to neighbouring countries following tougher law enforcement here.
The deputy chief of the Department of Health Service Support (DHSS) has not ruled out the possibility that people may be smuggling human semen out as a way of getting around the country's tough surrogacy law, which only permits married couples in Thailand to have children in this way if they cannot conceive naturally.
Department deputy chief Thongchai Keeratihuttayakorn voiced his concern following the arrest on Thursday of a Thai man carrying six tubes of what he claimed was human semen bound for Vientiane in a nitrogen storage tank. Nithinon Srithaniyanan, 25, was arrested at the Nong Khai border checkpoint.
Buying, selling, importing or exporting human sperm, eggs or embryos is prohibited according to a law known as the Technologically Assisted Reproductive Medicine Surrogate Children Protection Act, B.E. 2558 (2015)
But if they are successfully smuggled to another country, Thailand is powerless to intercede, Dr Thongchai said.
It remains unclear at this stage why the men would need to have their semen smuggled overseas rather than traveling abroad themselves.
It is possible the process of insemination may already have started in Thailand, which has more advanced fertilisation technologies that elsewhere in the region, some doctors said.
Meanwhile, it has not yet been confirmed if the nitrogen storage tank the Thai man was carrying contained semen, as he claimed, or human embryos, Dr Thongchai said, adding that a lab test to verify this should take a few days.
Immigration authorities said he visited Cambodia 13 times and Laos 11 times over the last year before he was arrested on Thursday. It is believed that he was hired to transport human semen, eggs and embryos to clinics there.
Dr Ittaporn Kanacharoen, deputy secretary-general of the Medical Council, said the case highlights certain problems the medical council and policy-makers must pay attention to.
The use of surrogates is allowed in Thailand but is currently under tight controls and registration, he said, adding that this is done to ensure the children born are well cared for.
This is the first case in Thailand of a suspect being arrested for smuggling semen or inseminated embryos after a law on technology-assisted fertilisation came into being in 2015, Dr Ittaporn said. This law bans the commercial use of surrogacy.
He said another problem was the fact that different countries in the region operate under different laws.
Thai law can in some areas be stricter than that of its neighbours. For example, it does not recognise same-sex marriages.
Thongchai Keeratihattayakorn, deputy director-general of the Department of Health Service Support, speaks to reporters as he leads health officials to inspect two fertility clinics on Ploenchit Road in Bangkok yesterday.
Dr Thongchai yesterday inspected two fertility and IVF clinics on Ploenchit Road in Pathumwan district following Mr Nithinon's arrest. They are among the four clinics mentioned by Mr Nithinon as the sources of the semen he claimed to have collected for transportation to the neighbouring countries.
Dr Thongchai said he found no irregularities in any of the clinics but that he is awaiting lab results on the contents of Mr Nithinon's luggage.
"If it is just semen, the clinic will be out of the equation as semen is the property of the owner, just like money in the bank," Dr Thongchai said.
But if the lab results show that the storage tank contained one or more embryos, the department will have to further investigate to see how it or they were legally removed from the clinic.
The DHSS plans to inspect 70 other clinics that provide IVF- and semen-collection services to see if they meet certain standards, he added.
Meanwhile, Superior ART, one of the four clinics, denied any involvement with the smuggling. However, the clinic admitted the sperm donors had been its clients and that they had authorised a Thai national, whose identity remains unclear, to collect their sperm early this week.
Sarayuth Assamakorn, the clinic's managing director, said a man from Vietnam and another from China visited his clinic for infertility consultation early this year. Mr Nithinon claimed it was their semen he was smuggling.
"It is the client's right to take his sperm out from the clinic because it is considered their asset, not ours. Every sperm release paper was signed by the client," Mr Sarayuth said.
"Their sperm was taken on different days, but the foreign clients had authorized the same person to collect it, and he was Thai," Mr Sarayuth said, adding that it was not Mr Nithinon.
The Chinese man's sperm was collected on April 17, while the Vietnamese's was picked up two days later, Mr Sarayuth said, adding that the nitrogen storage tank found on Mr Nithinon's person was not from his clinic.