The letters have been issued by PAD even though the government has yet to formulate law concerning surrogacy. PAD is headed by Kedar Bogati, joint secretary at MoHP.The Curative Division is the entity at MoHP that is designated to issue such letters to hospitals after the relevent laws have been formulated.
Ministry officials claim that MoHP doesn't have any official record of such letters, nor do the authorities concerned have any idea about letters on the basis of which hospitals have been running surrogacies for several years.
Spokesperson at MoHP Dr. Guna Raj Lohani, who has been designated to oversee the surrogacy issue, told Republica that he is unaware of letters issued by the ministry.
"I have no idea about the letters you are talking about. We haven't issued any letter to any hospital or agent permitting them to carry out surrogacy activities," said Dr Lohani. "Law concerning surrogacy is yet to be formulated."
However, permission to run surrogacy services has been granted to hospitals by PAD on the basis of a cabinet decision of September 2014. The cabinet decision states that Nepal will allow permission to hospitals to provide surrogacy services if both the couples and the surrogate mothers are foreigners.
Renowned private hospitals have been providing surrogacy services, raising questions about the government's stance. In lack of proper monitoring and given the carelessness on the part of the authorities, the hospitals have been running surrogacies with the help of national and international agents.
Private hospitals like Grande International Hospital, Grande City Clinic, Venus International Hospital and Om Hospital are providing surrogate services to foreign couples.
According to Dr. Chakra Raj Pandey, medical director at Grande, the hospital has been providing services to surrogate mothers who conceive through In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) in Nepal and India.
"Surrogate mothers come to Nepal through agents and we provide medical services to all pregnant women and issue birth certificates as per the parents' history," he said. "We have been doing normal IVF but haven't provided surrogacy services ourselves as claimed by media." He further added that his hospital is interested in providing surrogacy if the law allows.
He also informed that Grande has appointed Dr. Rita Bakshi as the focal person for surrogacy. Bakshi owns the International Fertility Center that caters surrogacy services.
Meanwhile, Director of Om Hospital and Research Center Dr Bhola Rijal refuted claims that his hospital is providing surrogacy services. "We provide delivery services to any patient who comes to our hospital irrespective of the nature of the conceptions," he said. Dr Rijal further claimed that his hospital had provided delivery services to surrogate mothers.
An OPD officer at the Grande City Clinic told Republica, "We have guidelines from the Ministry of Health and Population and surrogacy is legal for foreigners in Nepal as per the Nepal government." Grande City Clinic informed that it has dealt with 40 cases of surrogacy to date.
But Shanta Bahadur Shrestha, secretary at MoHP, informed that that no one can practice surrogacy in Nepal until the formulation of law concerning this practice. "We have formed a special committee to investigate this issue and we will act upon it."
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