Category Archives: Fertility Tourism

Reproductive tourism: Paying women in poor countries to bear our babies is rife with ethical problems

Posted on October 24, 2012 | Comments Off on Reproductive tourism: Paying women in poor countries to bear our babies is rife with ethical problems

Ottawa:

Reproductive tourism, the phenomenon of people crossing international borders to purchase assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) is now a multi-billion dollar industry. Its most ethically problematic manifestation is when citizens of wealthy countries (like Canada and the USA) travel to poorer countries (most commonly India) to purchase the services of asurrogate mother.

By some accounts, the Indian ART industry is worth $500 million to $2.3 billion.

In their upcoming paper, “Ethical concerns for maternal surrogacy and reproductive tourism” in theJournal of Medical Ethics, Professor Raywat Deonandan of the Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences at the University of Ottawa, along with students Samantha Green and Amanda van Beinum, enumerate the specific ethical challenges posed by this emerging new industry.

Along with six other concerning issues, the authors identified the tension between business ethics and medical ethics as being at the heart of the industry’s ethical problem, along with an insufficiently broad definition of “informed consent.” When desperately poor, illiterate and vulnerable village women are entering into complicated contracts to sell their reproductive health to wealthy foreigners, often some of the softer social risks are not communicated to them, such as their risk of estrangement from their communities, or the risk of domestic unease with their spouses and existing children.

Part of the problem is that when commerce collides with medicine, there isn’t an agreed upon ethical framework for establishing rights and responsibilities. In a business negotiation, each actor has to worry about his own best interests only. But in a medical conversation, the clinic is morally responsible for everyone’s interests, including both the surrogate’s and the client’s. This new blend of business and health care has yet to navigate a path between these two poles.

The extent to which Indian ART clinics overtly cater to the needs of non-Indians has always been difficult to determine, as is any sort of measurement of how many foreigners travel to India specifically to seek out ART services, especially maternal surrogacy services. In another recent paper, “Measuring reproductive tourism through an analysis of Indian ART clinic websites” inInternational Journal of General Medicine, Professor Deonandan and students Mirhad Loncar, Prinon Rahman and Sabrina Omar analyzed the official websites of 159 Indian ART clinics to determine how many were actively seeking a foreign clientele.

What they discovered was that 86% of the clinics made some mention of reproductive tourism services, with 47% overtly offering surrogates to clients. Their results also hint at a growing domestic market for Indian ART services, truly making this industry a deep, global phenomenon.

The consideration of the global ART industry subtends all of the hot-button topics of our day: women’s rights, globalization, the exploitation of the poor, the challenges of creating a family in the modern world, the commoditization of the human body, science advancing faster than society, and the question of how much regulation is needed in the business world. As Canada is one of the few countries in the world with a federal law restricting certain ART practices, many infertile Canadians travel to India to seek out reproductive services. An exploration of the ethics of this practice is therefore relevant to us all.

source: http://www.HealthCanal.com / Home> Pregnancy and Childbirth / October 23rd, 2012

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Posted in Fertility Tourism, Health /Medical Treatment For Overseas Treatment, Medical Tourism/Health Tourism, Medical Treatment/Health Treatment Subject By Speciality, Reports,Features, Statistics

Bahamas plans first stem cell procedure

Posted on October 15, 2012 | Comments Off on Bahamas plans first stem cell procedure

Doctors Hospital will play host to a piece of Bahamian medical history this week.

Top Bahamian doctors will perform the country’s first stem cell procedure at the private hospital, essentially opening the flood gates to a cutting-edge technique with serious medical tourism potential.

The operation will also be observed by doctors from the U.S. for research purposes.

Dr. Conville Brown, leading cardiologist and founder of the Bahamas Heart Center, called the procedure “major league” for the medical tourism product.

“We’ll be doing our first patient in The Bahamas this week,” he said. “It will be the first of several. They have gone through the ethnical process and we hope to bring positive fame to The Bahamas.”

The technique, using the body’s own cells, has not yet gained full approval in the U.S. However, the intervention is gaining momentum among investors and the medical community.

Late last month, reports surfaced in the international media that Gail Cogdill, the former National Football League (NFL) star, was planning a stem cell procedure here in the capital to repair his failing heart. The once NFL Rookie of the Year, however, is not covered under U.S. medical insurance.

The Cogdills are trying to raise $35,000 through the website GoFundMe.com. While it is unknown whether Cogdill is the country’s first stem cell patient, it appears likely. An update on Cogdill’s profile states that the family travelled to Nassau yesterday on the advice of doctors.

The stem cells would be extracted in Nassau, sent to Israel for treatment and then reinserted in the patient at a higher capacity.

Barry Rassin, the president of Doctors Hospital, revealed that the institution is looking to establish a stem cell lab at the Shirley Street location by the spring of next year. The move would eliminate the need to “out-source” the stem cells, boost efficiency and help the BISX-listed firm become a leader in the technique.

“Stem cell procedures are the wave of the future,” Rassin told Guardian Business. “We want to get involved. We are very aware of its growing importance.”

Indeed, there are a number of clinics jockeying for position here in The Bahamas.

Guardian Business has learned that the government is now attempting to draft stem cell regulations in an effort to catch up with the demand.

In anticipation of the historic procedure this week, Brown said stem cell therapy offers serious tourism potential. Medical tourists tend to travel in large groups, stay for long periods of time, and partake in typical activities or services as everyday visitors.

“We’ll be the first to do this procedure,” he added. “This is major league for medical tourism. The parents we are talking about are coming into the country and bringing their families. Once the volumes get up and standards are maintained, we can be poised as one of the number one medical tourism destinations in the world.”

Rassin revealed that Doctors Hospital’s plan to construct a stem cell lab “will not be inexpensive,” although he did not provide specifics on the financials. He expressed a desire to partner with doctors at the hospital to alleviate the up-front cost.

source: http://www.freeport.nassauguardian.net / The Freeport News / Home> Business / by Jeffrey Todd, Guardian Business Editor <jeffrey@nasguard.com> / Thursday, October 11th, 2012

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Posted in Fertility Tourism

State-of-the-art IVF centre could boost medical tourism

Posted on October 11, 2012 | Comments Off on State-of-the-art IVF centre could boost medical tourism

Abu Dhabi:

A drop in the high infertility rates in the Middle East is inevitable with the opening of a state-of-the-art in vitro fertilisation (IVF) laboratory or centre in Abu Dhabi in the next few weeks.

Dubai Health Authority records showed there are approximately 100,000 people in the UAE affected by infertility.

The full operations of the laboratory at the private tertiary Burjeel Hospital may also boost the UAE’s medical tourism.

“This is one of the advanced centres in the world and the best in Asia,” Dr Human Fatemi told The Gulf Today.

He added that the new IVF centre would primarily address the infertility issues in the UAE.

The laboratory, which will also be a research centre, is a collaboration between the hospital and the University Hospital Brussels-Centre for Reproductive Medicine (UHB-CRM) that has been responsible for over 15,000 IVF births.

Fatemi, who heads the new centre, is an expert in IVF with 13 years of experience and was the UHB medical director until his transfer to Abu Dhabi.

In a telephone interview on Monday, he underscored the importance of the laboratory.

Fatemi said: “There is an urgent need for quality scientific treatment and up-to-date facilities to address infertility issues not only in the UAE but also in the region.”

Fatemi was among the speakers at the three-day “Emirates Obstetrician-Gynaecologist Forum” in Dubai in October 2011 and on the sidelines of the forum he informed this reporter about the establishment of the newest technology and research centre on IVF in Abu Dhabi.

During the three-day event, Fatemi, who had done consultancy work with the Royale Hayat Hospital in Kuwait, said: “Infertility rates are growing in the region because these countries have similar lifestyle. There are high rates of obesity as well as smoking among them and relatives inter-marry.”

He explained the IVF procedures, when asked how advanced and unique the IVF laboratory is.

Fatemi said the IVF involves two areas.

These are the clinical part concerning the patients and the laboratory part, which is about the provision of a very good environment for the eggs (ova) and the sperm to make a very healthy embryo.

He stressed the laboratory must have the appropriate air pressure, temperature and incubator, among other factors.

Fatemi mentioned the intra-cytoplasmatic sperm injection (ICSI) as another method to solve infertility issues.

He said that the quality of the ovum depends on the woman’s age, claiming that

IVF and ICSI give 3.5 per cent chances of pregnancy vis-à-vis the “natural means” of 1.5 to 2.5 per cent.

Fatemi said that IVF couples must be taken care of by a well-trained medical staff.
source: http://www.gulftoday.ae / Home> Local / by Mariecar  Jara-Puyod/ October 10th, 2012

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Stem cell therapy to lead DOT’s proposed ‘medical tourism’ plan

Posted on September 20, 2012 | Comments Off on Stem cell therapy to lead DOT’s proposed ‘medical tourism’ plan
The Department of Tourism plans to add another reason for more visitors to come to the country through a soon-to-be drafted “medical tourism” plan, which highlights the relatively cheap yet world-class health services some of the country’s hospitals have to offer.
In this proposed plan, DOT Secretary Ramon Jimenez aims to get the country’s medical sector to put its best foot forward by highlighting stem cell therapy as well as other areas of specialization.
“Medical tourism focuses on some very serious, important areas of healthcare that the world will travel for,” Jimenez said during a forum on stem cell science conducted at the Medical City hospital in Pasig City on Tuesday evening.
Through promoting world-class medical services in the country, such as some of Philippine hospitals’ stem cell programs, Jimenez said the DOT aims to draw foreigners into the country who, in his words, “yung sasakay sila ng eroplano, tatawid sila ng dagat.”
“(Foreigners) would obviously spend less if they sought care in their own country like the United States or (places in) Europe. So you really have to have a value that will mitigate the cost of that travel. Your service has to be superior, greater value for their money,” Jimenez said.
Jimenez was at the event because his wife Abby has a rare but mild motor neuron disease, and avails of stem cell therapy treatment herself.
The Medical City, as well as a few other hospitals, offers this type of therapy that Jimenez hopes  to promote to other countries.
Stem cell therapy entails taking stem cells from a patient, a compatible donor, or from other sources. These cells are then modified to fit the specifics of the patient’s condition, and are injected into the patient’s body.
According to a primer from the Medical City’s Institute of Personalized Molecular Medicine, which handles stem cell therapies, stem cells are “master cells” that are capable of renewing themselves through cell division, and can be modified, under particular physiologic conditions, to become tissue or organ-specific cells with special functions.
Stem cells can come from three sources: bone marrow, peripheral blood (referring to blood circulating the body), and blood from the umbilical cord. These sources are the best for multi-organ repair, according to the IPMM.
Apart from the Medical City, other hospitals in the country providing stem cell therapy are the Makati Medical Center, St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig, and the Kidney and Transplant Institute.
A six-month program for stem cell therapy, in the Medical City at least, is priced at around P2.2-P2.5 million for disease-related services, while for the health and wellness (or aesthetic purposes), the therapy is at around P1.4-P1.6 million
It was pointed out that the treatment in other countries would be thrice as expensive as the Philippine rates.
Sam Bernal, a globally renowned cancer specialist and head of the Medical City’s IPMM also said the Philippines has the potential for medical tourism in that the requirements to offer high-quality services, at least in stem cell therapy, are already here.
“The Philippines is an ideal destination for international patients. Moreover, there is really no reason for any Filipino patient to have to travel abroad for stem cell therapy when the best technology and the best VIP treatment is available right here,” Bernal said.
In the Medical City hospital, over 315 patients have undergone stem cell therapy since 2005. Out of that number, around 17 percent or 54 people are from abroad.
Jimenez said tourists who flock to the country for medical treatment are pegged at less than 150,000, citing 2011 figures. He said that number could rise quickly if awareness about the exceptional medical services the country can offer will be raised.
According to Bernal, some foreign clientele who have undergone stem cell therapy in the hospital he works for include an American billionaire couple who failed to be cured through the services of the renowned Johns Hopkins hospital in Baltimore state; shipping magnates from Norway, and patients from Singapore and Malaysia.
Aside from promoting stem cell therapy, Jimenez said possible areas where Filipino medicine excels in and would most likely be part of the medical tourism proposal are other forms of cancer treatment, orthopedics, and dentistry.
Jimenez said should the medical tourism proposal finally be done, its execution would be drastically different from the It’s More Fun in the Philippines Campaign, which was vibrant and utilized social media to get Filipinos to advertise the country to foreigners.
“To tell you frankly as a marketing person that’s not something I would emphasize. That mood and that tone may not be totally appropriate at all times,” Jimenez said. “However, the emphasis on people will still be pretty much the same.”
The plan for promoting medical tourism in the country internationally will be through the form of road shows and direct selling of the concept.
The secretary emphasized that Filipinos will still be the selling point of the campaign, however different the style of the campaign for medical tourism will be.
“Like (the More Fun in the Philippines campaign), it is additional evidence that it is the Filipino that makes the difference. As you can see pati sa medical tourism that will be the differentiator, the skill, the professionalism ,the genius, the caring,” Jimenez said.
“Iba talaga mag-alaga ang Pilipino e, di tayo nagtatapon ng tao,” he said. “Filipinos never forget they’re dealing with people,” he also said.
Jimenez said the medical tourism plan will take around three to six months to be conceptualized and drafted, but initial moves to promote the country’s health services will be done as soon as possible, and that the DOT is “determined to develop it as it comes.” — ELR, GMA News

source: http://www.gmanetwork.com / by Gian C. Geronimo, GNA News / September 19th, 2012

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Posted in Fertility Tourism, Health /Medical Treatment For Overseas Treatment, Medical Tourism/Health Tourism, Medical Treatment/Health Treatment Subject By Speciality, Reports,Features, Statistics

Patients coming to India for fertility treatment leading to country’s Muslim baby boom

Posted on September 15, 2012 | Comments Off on Patients coming to India for fertility treatment leading to country’s Muslim baby boom

New Delhi, India

Business is booming at Dheerendra Singh’s New Delhi-based medical tourism outfit, CureMax. But his biggest client base — Afghanistan — might come as something of a surprise.

“Every month, we do IVF [in vitro fertilization] for around 50 patients from Afghanistan,” Singh said. “They also come for other infertility-related procedures. And in the peak [winter] season [when the weather is more comfortable], we have 60-70 patients a month.”

Afghanistan isn’t the half of it. Though infertility is commonly associated with the changing lifestyles of the West — where more and more women are putting off childbirth until their late 30s — India’s IVF clinics are testimony that the trend is growing in developing countries and conservative societies as well.

Along with the much-talked-about medical tourist trade from the US and Europe, India is seeing an influx of patients from Muslim countries in Africa and the Middle East, thanks to a thriving, low-cost domestic fertility industry and cultural connections that make India a comfortable place for conservative Muslims, medical tourism professionals say.

Statistics aren’t readily available on the total number of patients coming to India for fertility treatments from predominantly Muslim countries. But anecdotal evidence from various doctors and other agents like Singh — as well as a thriving business in the Afghan refugee colony in New Delhi — suggests that the phenomenon is significant.

According to  India’s Outlook magazine, for instance, fertility experts like Dr. Kaberi Banerjee number their patients from places like Iran, Iraq, Uzbekistan and Tanzania in the hundreds. Meanwhile, companies like Care Medical say they see 10-15 foreign patients from Islamic countries every month, according to managing director D. Mahendran.

“Overall, we see [medical tourism] growth of about 15-20 percent annually, and I believe roughty the same kind of number holds for IVF,” said P.R. Ramesh, the chief executive of Aaarex Medical Services, another medical tourism firm. “But we’re seeing a larger number of Muslim people than previously, including Muslims from Arabic countries and Muslims from countries like Nigeria and Tanzania and so on.”

Various factors help explain the baby boom. Because of India’s massive population, and the cultural importance of bearing children here, private fertility clinics have mushroomed in recent years — until there’s an IVF signboard on virtually every street in the upscale neighborhoods of New Delhi.

Reputable clinics offer a high standard of care for a small fraction of the cost of IVF in the West. A typical IVF procedure, for instance, runs to $3,000 in India, compared with $8,000 in the US or Europe, said CureMax’s Singh. And patients receive more attention from doctors.

To regulate fly-by-night outfits that have begun sprouting up, the Indian Council of Medical Research recently drafted regulations and began to crack down.

“Here in India, people take IVF very serious, and they give personalized care,” said Mahendran.

But there are other reasons India is attracting patients from Muslim countries.

Proximity and historical ties link India with Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries of Central Asia in ways that are impossible for other medical tourism hotspots, like Thailand, to match. Standards of dress and behavior are similar, for instance. And the long dominance of Bollywood movies in the target region means that patients there are comfortable with Indian culture, and, especially in Afghanistan, can often already speak Hindi.

Because fertility treatments can be time consuming, the low cost of living, and the ease of blending in and finding halal meat and other familiar foods, is also a factor. In New Delhi, for instance, CureMax and other medical tourism outfits connect IVF patients with landlords operating serviced apartments in neighborhoods in Lajpat Nagar and Jangpura, which are already home to Afghan refugees who migrated here to escape the fighting at home. By cooking their own meals — and buying Afghani naan from the local shop — they avoid exorbitant hotel costs.

Similarly, certain Iranian and African communities have ties with India that make it a more familiar destination than its competitors.

“India has got a large Muslim population, and there are many communities in Africa which relate very closely to their counterparts in India,” said Aaarex’s Ramesh.

“For example, there is a community called the Ithna Asheri community in Tanzania, with strong connections to the same community in India. Many of these communities are Indian in origin. To some extent there are also family links.”

source: http://www.alaskadispatch.com / by Jason Overdorf / GlobalPost.com / September 14th, 2012

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