The Public Health Ministry is currently drafting an amendment, to the law on the protection of children born through the application of assisted reproductive technology, to allow foreign couples access to surrogacy services in Thailand, said Arkhom Praditsuwan, deputy director-general of the Health Service Support Department.

According to the subcommittee responsible for amendment, foreign couples will be allowed to bring their own or use a Thai surrogate, adding that the process must strictly abide by the legal terms, which are still being worked out.

There will, however, be measures in place to prevent commercial surrogacy services and human trafficking.

“This will be the first Act of its kind in Thailand, which will attract the attention of foreign couples seeking surrogacy services,” said Arkhom.

Besides surrogacy services for foreign couples, the law will also allow unmarried female relatives of the woman seeking the services, aged from 20 to 40, to donate their eggs.

Other proposed amendments include wives who are 35-years-old can undergo genetic tests on their foetus, to make sure they are healthy, and women who are over 55 will be allowed to seek surrogacy services.

Arkhom disclosed that there might be cases of women who have kept their eggs frozen at reproductive clinics, where they can be kept for up to 30 years, and want to have babies when they are married at the age of 60. They can ask for semen from their husbands or relatives to be used to fertilise their frozen eggs and then use the services of a surrogate mother, he added.

According to the Health Service Support Department, there are now 17 state hospitals, 31 private hospitals and 67 private clinics now offering assisted reproductive technology services, including surrogacy services.