According to the Ministry of Health (MOH), five Chinese medical institutions have been approved in China as the first batch with these researching on human complementary reproduction technology and operating human sperm banks.

An authoritative view was that a strict entry system on human complementary reproduction technology and sperm bank technology will be practiced in China and no substandard entries are allowed.

Human complementary reproduction technology is also known as "test-tube-baby" technology. The five medical institutions with their specific work assignments approved by MOH for "test-tube-baby" technology are as following:

Reproduction and Genetics Research Institute affiliated with Chongqing Municipal Gynaecology and Obstetrics Hospital; Zhejiang Wenzhou Medical College First Hospital; Jiangsu Nanjing Municipal Gulou Hospital for extraneous insemination-embryo transplanting/ovicell monosperm microscopic injection technology; Gynaecology and Obstetrics Hospital of Zhejiang University for supplied sperm artificial, extraneous insemination, embryo transplanting/ovicell monosperm microscopic injection and prior transplanting embryo genetics diagnostic technology; Jiangsu Province People's Hospital for supplied sperm artificial, extraneous insemination-embryo transplanting/ovicell monosperm microscopic injection technology. Also approved with these are sperm banks by Chongqing Municipal Family Planning Scientific Research Institute Attached Hospital and Jiangsu People's Hospital.

Strict Entry

A survey by relevant departments of the health ministry tells that found already in operation are 44 sperm banks, 175 institutions for "test-tube-baby" technology research, 126 for supplied sperm artificial insemination, 214 institutions for husband-artificial insemination. These make a total of 400 to 500 researching on complementary reproduction technology in China.

Making sure that complementary reproduction technology be applied on proper recipients, multiple or twin embryo averted, and less ethic, moral and legal negative impacts produced on women and children, a strict entry system will be enforced in China.

It is stressed that human complementary reproduction technology must be carried out on the campuses of approved or registered medical institutions and all the others would likewise be completely forbidden by the MOH.

The MOH published two regulations on the management of ART service and sperm banks in February this year, and carried outstrict checks of the institutes' qualifications from August. "The market must be regulated. Otherwise the technology couldbe abused and the market may grow out of control, causing manysocial, ethical, and legal problems," said Yu Xiucheng, a scienceand technology official in the MOH.

He accused some IVF centers of conducting the service withoutqualified 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 13,000yuan (about 1,600 U.S. dollars) to 40,000 yuan (about 5,000 US dollars). The success rate of the lower-priced methods stands at 30 percent, according to a report by Beijing Youth Daily in March, quoting Qiao Jie, an obstetrician in the 3rd Hospital of the Beijing University Medical School.

Another problem Qiao pointed out was that IVF technology canlead to multiple births, which can endanger the health of themother. He also pointed out that multiple births go against theprinciple of the country's family planning policy.

High Demand

Demands for ART service are enormous in China, the world's mostpopulous country, because ten percent of the couples of childbearing age are estimated to suffer from sterility. Sources of the State Family Planning Commission said there are 250 million women of childbearing age in the country.

About one million Chinese couples want to try ART service atpresent, and the figure will go up in future, according to the MOH.

Researchers blame environmental pollution, surge of sexually transmitted diseases, and the increase of pre-marital sex and abortions as major reasons of high incidence of sterility.Chinese doctors reported the first successful case of artificial insemination in 1982, and reported the first baby bornfrom IVF in 1988 in Beijing.

( December 6, 2001)