Kenya moves to regulate IVF, surrogacy as MPs pass Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill

The Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill has finally been passed by the National Assembly.

The Bill, sponsored by Suba North MP Millie Odhiambo, was first published in the 11th Parliament as In-Vitro Fertilization Bill 2014, but it lapsed.

It was republished in 2022 as Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Bill in the name of Ms Odhiambo, designed to regulate IVF and other assisted reproduction methods in the country.

However, according to Homa Bay Town MP Peter Kaluma, the Bill underwent heavy redrafting to protect children and the society from being abused through the process of surrogacy.

According to Kaluma, the Bill will not allow for commercial surrogacy in Kenya that could potentially be abused by exposing children to the dangers of paedophilia, organ harvesting and research on the human body.

“We have shut that possibility, the Bill allows for altruistic surrogacy only for Kenyan citizens. No room has been allowed for foreigners to undertake surrogacy or assisted reproduction in Kenya and therefore, no room for fertility tourism in Kenya,” Kaluma said.

According to the Bill, only men in marriage will benefit from the law if passed by the Senate, with Kaluma explaining that it could be dangerous if a man got a child through surrogacy and he is not genetically related to it.

“It permits altruistic surrogacy only for Kenyan heterosexual couples or women whether divorced, widowed or single who are certified by an assisted reproductive technology expert to be infertile or incapable of natural conception,” Kaluma said.

“We are offering a couple; if you are a man, you must be in a marriage. You may be firing blanks but in a marriage. If you are single, you are in an infertile relationship, so you don’t want children.”

The proposed law also affirms that human life begins at conception and institutes legal protection of human life, the life of children born through assisted reproduction technology.

It aims to provide a legal framework for those unable to conceive naturally, establishes an ART directorate and prohibits practices like human cloning and includes provisions regarding the legal parentage of children born via assisted reproduction.