(Standard) Kenya MPs on Wednesday made a call to help childless couples have children through in-vitro fertilization (IVF).
MPs overwhelmingly backed a bill on test-tube babies and approved it to go to the last legislative stage.
IVF is a procedure that involves having the egg from a woman and sperm from a man fertilized in a laboratory and then implanting the resulting embryo in a woman’s womb.
The MPs spoke about the “modern reality” of impotent and barren mothers who have to turn to science to have children. They said the time had come for IVF to be included in the law.
“What we have tried to do is to be sensitive to religious issues but at the same time meet the reality. If we don’t pass this law, it is not that in-vitro fertilisation will be unlawful, therefore it will still go on. The only problem is that the courts will have to now and again litigate on this issue,” said Ms Odhiambo, the sponsor of the In Vitro Fertilization Bill.
