The Ministry of Health announced that no organization or individual in the country would be allowed to provide assisted reproductive technology service without permission from the central and provincial health administrations.
The ministry on Wednesday approved two sperms banks and five ART centers in Chongqing Municipality, and Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, according to Xinhua news agency.
It also announced that the existing groups and individuals engaged in the service in China would have to get approval again. This would affect more than 400 ART institutes, including 44 sperm banks and 175 in-vitro fertilization centers.
The ministry published two regulations on the management of ART service and sperm banks in February this year, and has been carrying out strict checks on the institutes' qualifications since August.
"The market must be regulated. Otherwise the technology could be abused and the market may grow out of control, causing many social, ethical and legal problems," said Yu Xiucheng, a ministry official.
He accused some IVF centers of conducting the service without qualified personnel and technological equipment.
"They are driven only by huge business profits," he said.
The cost of a single IVF procedure in China ranges from 13,000 yuan (US$1,600) to 40,000 yuan. The success rate of the lower-priced methods stands at 30 percent, according to Qiao Jie, an obstetrician at the 3rd Hospital of the Beijing University Medical School.
Another problem Qiao pointed out was that IVF technology can lead to multiple births, which can endanger the health of the mother. He also said that multiple births go against the principle of the country's family planning policy.
Demands for ART service are enormous in China, because 10 percent of the couples of childbearing age are estimated to suffer from sterility. Sources at the State Family Planning Commission said that there are 250 million women of childbearing age in the country.
Researchers blame environmental pollution, surge of sexually transmitted diseases, and the increase of pre-marital sex and abortions as major reasons for the high incidence of sterility.
Chinese doctors reported the first successful case of artificial insemination in 1982, while the country's first baby from IVF was born in Beijing in 1988.
(eastday.com December 7, 2001)
