The Department of Health Service Support (DHSS) is seeking to amend the law to allow commercial surrogacy which can help curb the illegal trading of babies. The agency is pursuing an amendment to the Protection of Children Born from Assisted Reproductive Technologies Act — the ART Act — which would allow women to be hired legally as surrogates, the DHSS director-general, Dr Tares Krassanairawiwong, said yesterday. The amendment would also enable foreigners to obtain legal surrogacy services in Thailand. Currently, a woman who is not biologically related to a husband and wife seeking a surrogacy service due to a fertility problem is allowed to serve as a surrogate only if the couple do not have a blood relative capable of doing so. The service must also not be for profit. Now the DHSS is in the process of considering what requirements a commercial surrogate mother would need to meet. Dr Tares expected the amendment draft to be finalized in about two months from now. The DHSS will also work to change a related law concerning the freezing of eggs, sperm or embryos. He has insisted that infertility is recognized by the World Health Organization as a disease, which means efforts to remedy the condition should be subsidized. Read more at:
EXTRICATING NDONESIAN CHILDREN FROM ISIS INFLUENCE ABROAD
Indonesia urgently needs to revisit the possibility of repatriating the neediest of its young citizens stranded abroad, whose families had earlier joined ISIS. Most of these children are in camps in northern Syria but there are also small numbers in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Iraq. “Extricating Indonesian Children from ISIS Influence Abroad”, the latest report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) argues that the government could begin by bringing back small groups of unaccompanied children under ten years of age, who pose minimal security risk and are most vulnerable to deteriorating conditions in the camps.“The problem is that health and security conditions are worsening by the day in the Syrian camps, and the children are growing older,” says Dyah Kartika, IPAC analyst. “They need access to schools, a nurturing environment, and medical attention. If the government waits too long, the children will be further exposed to ISIS ideology.” The new report examines a 2019 list of Indonesians in camps and prisons run by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Indonesian government has been trying to verify their citizenship, but with pseudonyms, misspellings and bad transliterations, it is a daunting task. At the time the data was collected, between March and June 2019, there were 555 Indonesians in SDF camps and prisons, including 367 children. Among the children, approximately 277 were under the age of ten and 34 were unaccompanied. In June 2021, there are fewer than ten children who are both unaccompanied and under the age of ten that could be prioritized for return. Bringing back children of ISIS families is no easy task. The report analyses the main challenges faced by the Indonesian government. These include definitional issues, bureaucratic competition, the difficulty of verifying nationality, evaluating the toll of exposure to conflict, assessing security risk, and finding relatives or others willing to provide care once the children are returned. In addition, COVID has meant stringent restrictions on travel, placing further obstacles in the way of repatriation. There are several models for rehabilitation of children exposed to violent extremism in Indonesia that could be modified to accommodate the needs of children repatriated from abroad. The report examines these models and argues that the government does not need to have every detail of rehabilitation programs in place before it starts extricating children from ISIS influence. It can start by bringing back the most vulnerable children and then modify programs as needed.
“It’s important that the government see these children as victims” says Dyah. “They deserve a chance to be children again.”
