This is part of the Government’s Decree No. 82/2020/ND-CP dated on July 17, replacing Decree No. 110/2013/ND-CP on sanctions of administrative violations in the field of judicial assistance, judicial administration, marriage and family, civil judgement enforcement, enterprise and cooperative bankruptcy.

Viet Nam legalized surrogacy in 2015 to benefit infertile couples, but not on commercial basis, with the adoption of the revised Law on Marriage and Family.

The country’s first baby born to a surrogate mother was in 2016 in Ha Noi as the mother of the girl had been unable to conceive after 18 years of marriage due to congenital abnormalities.

The current regulations allows close relatives to become surrogate mothers and surrogacy is permitted only in cases when the woman is physically in capable of having children.

Only five hospitals are permitted by the Ministry of Health for surrogacy, namely the Ha Noi-based National Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hue-based General Hospital, Hung Vuong Hospital and Tu Du Obstetrics Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, and My Duc Hospital.

The latest regulation is expected to further protect women as many people have been arrested and investigated for illegally running surrogacy rings for profit.

Poor Vietnamese women in rural and remote areas have been lured to a foreign country to deliver babies or sell new born babies./.