IVF ‘EGG TRADE’ RAID ON CLINIC
A PRIVATE hospital and IVF centre in Lefkoşa were raided by police over claims that they are running an illegal egg donation trade.
Officers with a search warrant seized equipment and paperwork from the hospital and IVF centre, which were not named by the police, as evidence and detained several suspects during Thursday’s raid, who were interrogated throughout the night.
Some of the detainees were released after questioning, while others had been due to appear before Lefkoşa District Court yesterday.
The search warrant was granted by a court based on information that the eggs from the ovaries of a woman under the age of 20 were removed in exchange for money between November and December 2020.
It is believed that other females under the age of 20 have also been selling their eggs to the IVF centre in question.
The “Cell, Tissue and Organ Transplantation Law”, which was passed by Parliament in 2014 and came into effect on July 15, 2015, prohibits cell, tissue and organ donation in exchange for money, but allows for donation with the approval of the Health Ministry and relevant doctors. The law also imposes age restrictions on those who can donate eggs.
A statement issued by the Police Press Office on Thursday said: “Upon receiving information in NovemberDecember 2020 that the eggs of a female under the age of 20 were obtained as a result of an operation carried out in two separate private hospitals in Lefkoşa in exchange for money, the police launched an investigation.
“As part of the investigation, computers, documents and paperwork from the health centres were taken into evidence for examination. The investigation continues.”
According to the TRNC’s “Assisted Reproduction and Treatment Centres (Amendment) Law” it is illegal for a woman to donate her eggs more than once a year and she must be over the age of 20 and under the age of 32.
An amendment to Article 13 of the law also bans the use of “eggs, sperm and embryos from married couples who are TRNC citizens for other purposes” or for other IVF candidates; the transfer of an invitro fertilised egg to a “surrogate mother for any reason”; and the transfer of an embryo to a person over the age of 45.
The law also states that assisted reproduction and treatment centres (ART) must take the “necessary precautions to ensure confidentiality in order to prevent the identity of the people who donate eggs and sperm from being known by the people who will use them; or the identity of the
people who use the eggs and sperm to be known by the donors”.
The law also requires donors to sign a declaration, including their name, surname and ID number, which states they are donating “without any expectation of material or moral gain in return”.
In addition, the “Regulation of Human Cell, Tissue and Organ Transplantation Rules Law” states that the “authorised authorities, organisations, centres and tissue and organ supply centres are obliged to do what is necessary for the voluntary and free donation of human cells, tissues and organs”.
The law also expresses that it is forbidden to take cells, tissues and organs from people who are under the age of 18 and those who are “mentally unstable”.