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Latest Surrogacy News
Kenya’s first test tube baby
is on the way
By Gatonye Gathura and
Obote Akoko
Sunday October 12, 2003
Sunday
Standard
Spouses with child-bearing
problems will now have an accessible alternative in Kenya
following a breakthrough by a team of medical doctors using
the scientifically tested method of test-tube conception.
Test tube-baby-making, as the
technology is known, was pioneered by scientists in the
United States but has not been available locally. The
breakthrough by local experts now means that couples unable
to have their own children naturally will now walk to the
clinic at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) in
Nairobi for help in getting a baby — at a fee.
But not everyone can afford
it. The whole process, from initial screening, medical care,
all the way to delivery of a baby or babies will, according
to our sources, cost approximately Sh400,000.
However incase the first
attempt is not successful, repeating the process — after the
prescribed minimum period of four months, will cost Sh70,
000.
At present, couples in need
of the procedure have to travel to the US or other European
countries where it costs in excess of Sh1 million excluding
incidentals like airfare, accommodation, insurance and
others.
Our sources were quick to add
that the cost of the service is likely to change once it is
launched. Details of the hush-hush breakthrough are expected
to be made public on Tuesday. The In Vitro Fertilisation and
Embryo Transfer (IVF-ET) project is led by Dr A. Kibwana,
Dr. Okello Agina and Dr. Leah Kirumbi, all of them
well-known consultant gynecologists and obstetricians.
IVF is a procedure that
involves retrieving the eggs from a woman and mixing them in
the lab with sperm. The resulting embryo is then placed back
into the mother’s uterus to develop normally until delivery.
IVF is usually the treatment of choice for a woman with
blocked or absent fallopian tubes, through which the egg
travels from the ovary to the uterus.
Following concerns over
increasing cases of infertility in Kenya, experts say
infertility takes up 60 per cent of gynecologists’ time in
major local hospitals — a proposal was made in the 1990s to
acquire assisted reproductive technology from abroad. The
proposal was subsequently accepted and the IVF-ET project
kicked off with the installation of appropriate equipment
and technical preparations undertaken jointly by KEMRI and
some private sector reproductive health experts.
Beneficiaries
Likely beneficiaries of the
procedure are women with blocked or damaged fallopian tubes,
which prevent the egg and sperm from meeting and
fertilisation taking place naturally.
Others who will benefit from
the new technology are women with unexplained infertility
and wives whose husbands produce very low quantities or no
sperm at all.
The procedure also treats
endometriosis, a condition in which contents of uterine
linings are found in external areas such as ovaries, uterine
muscles, the cervix, and fallopian tubes.
A woman whose cervix produces
mucus that immobilises sperm — a condition called cervical
mucus hostility, and which prevents conception — may also
benefit from the procedure.
In the first phase,
candidates were selected after thorough screening to get
their reproductive, hormonal and general health profiles
following approval by KEMRI’s ethics committee.
Speaking on condition of
anonymity, one of the IVF-ET project experts disclosed that
in two cases, they successfully harvested eggs from
infertile women and fertilised them with men’s sperm in a
laboratory to produce the desired embryos.
Though the transfer did not
lead to pregnancy and childbirth, in what would have been
Kenya’s first test tube baby, "The bare fact that there was
fusion of the couples’ reproductive seeds, has given us new
impetus," said the source.
The team is said to be
planning to recruit at least 100 couples into the programme
in coming months. A proposal has also been put forward to
have at least 10 women volunteer sponsored by some donor
organisations because of the high cost to self-sponsored
candidates.
Results of the breakthrough
were first presented to a Kenya Gynecologists and
Obstetricians Society (KOGS) seminar at Nairobi Hospital in
August while a major presentation is scheduled for next
Tuesday,14th October 2003, at KEMRI.
Asked to comment on the
scientists’ progress report, KOGS chairman Dr. J.G. Karanja
said: "We are satisfied with their work. The technology
promises a good future for Kenyans."
Consultant Gynecologist and
Obstetrician Dr Koigi Kamau expressed similar optimism,
saying the team needed all the support to put Kenya on the
ART world map. However, he said that the scientists did not
want details made public till the KEMRI forum.
The world’s first test tube
baby, Louise Brown, was born in England 25 years ago. Now
engaged to be married, she is the standard bearer for more
than a million babies worldwide born through IVF.
While the technology has been
applauded in the scientific world, it has been frowned upon
by moralists, especially the Catholic Church, for trying to
play God.
The Vatican called Louise’s
birth "an event that can have very grave consequences for
humanity" because it divorced the conjugal sexual act from
procreation.
But in a recent interview
with Time magazine, Dr Edwards was quoted as
expressing satisfaction that "there are as many Roman
Catholics coming for treatment as Protestants".
According to a source at the
Kemri, the project was only given the greenlight after
thorough vetting by the institute’s ethics committee, on
which the church is represented. Which explains why the
project that begun in 1999 has only just matured.
In their information package,
the Kenyan team is categorical that the procedure may be
unsuitable for people who may have religious or moral
reasons but it "should not be denied to others who are
willing because it will be against their constitutional
rights".
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