IVF couples lured to lawless Cyprus town
IT WAS once one of Europe’s most glamorous resorts, loved by British tourists for its luxury hotels, golden beaches and clear blue sea. But now Famagusta is called the Ghost Town.
After the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, thousands of Greek speakers fled – leaving the tourist industry in tatters.
The resort lies half empty and underpopulated, its crumbling buildings a potent symbol of the failings of the rogue state of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Famagusta is welcoming back a new class of British visitor however – couples who want to choose the sex of their baby.
In the UK gender selection is illegal and doctors risk of prosecution. But in Northern Cyprus, which is not recognised by the United Nations, ‘everything is legal’ according to one fertility clinic worker.
British doctors carry out preliminary tests and scans before sending the couples to the island for the final procedure.
Among these doctors is a senior NHS consultant who admits his boss would have a ‘heart attack’ if he carried out gender selec- tion at home. The Crown IVF Centre in a rundown suburb of Famagusta is the hub of this booming industry.
The interior of the clinic, on the third floor of the Famagusta Medical Hospital, shows no sign of the decay in much of the rest of the town.
Immaculate medics in matching blue blouses greeted two undercover Daily Mail reporters posing as a couple with two young boys and who now want to have a girl. In the lobby they met Jay Karatuna, who was previously one of the clinic’s English patient advisers and now liaises with customers from around the world.
After filling in a form, she led the pair through the pristine corridors lined with artwork to a separate office to discuss the process that would apparently guarantee the sex of their next child.
Sitting behind a desk, she explained the centre works with a handful of clinics in the UK.
These include centres in Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool and London’s Harley Street.
‘They will do the scans and monitoring and send you over when you are ready to have your egg collection,’ she explained.
The final stage would require residence in Cyprus for about a week while embryos are implanted, she said, adding: ‘Gender selection with your own eggs will be 8,000 euros.’ And in an indication of how competitive the gender selection industry has become, she was quick to rubbish her rivals. ‘The gender selection is guaranteed,’ she boasted. ‘You don’t really get that in a lot of clinics.’ The undercover reporters admitted they had no medical reason for wanting a girl but Miss Karatuna said gender selection for ‘family balancing’ would not trouble the authorities.
‘In North Cyprus you have no issues at all on the legal side of things,’ she said. ‘Everything is legal here. We’ve been doing it for years and years and years. It’s no problem to us.’
The Crown IVF Centre is run by Halil Ibrahim Tekin, a consultant gynaecologist and specialist in reproductive medicine and surgery, whose picture adorns walls around the clinic. He founded the first IVF centre in North Cyprus in 2000 and boasts of helping to bring 20,000 children into the world. ‘He’s the one and only doctor here,’ Miss Karatuna said.
The Crown IVF Centre is not alone in offering gender selection to British customers.
Forty miles away in the Kolan British Hospital in the Republic’s capital, Nicosia, medics also tout for British business.
Prospective parents can pay 6,100 euros (£5,470) for gender selection, plus up to 2,000 euros (£1,793) for medication, 500 euros (£448) to freeze and store embryos (plus 250 euros a year after that) and 100 Turkish lira (£12) for blood tests.
In a Skype consultation, coordinator Zeren Ozbayer said initial tests could be carried out in the UK where ‘there are many scanning units’ they work with.
Asked about the ethics of gender selection, she said it was easy for parents with ‘one of each’.
But, she added: ‘Not everyone can keep going on having babies until you find the gender you desire. Everyone has an opinion but it’s whether financially, is it something you can afford, and is the other option continuing to fall pregnant until you balance your family?
‘You could end up with a football team at the end of it all.’
The Crown IVF Centre and Kolan British Hospital did not respond to requests for comment last night.
‘We’ve been doing it for years and years’ There’s a few British clinics we work with ... everything’s legal here ... it’s no problem to us’ CLINIC WORKER JAY KARATUNA