VNExpress-Sept 3
When Vietnam’s law changes on Oct. 1 to allow single women to have children through IVF without needing permission, it will do more than update policy. It will recognize a deep and often unspoken longing for motherhood on one’s own terms. The new reproductive rights law marks a profound shift. Until now, assisted reproductive techniques such as IVF were largely limited to infertile couples or cases approved by a doctor. Soon, a single woman who wishes to become a mother will no longer need to justify her choice to anyone but herself.
I expect the change will spark debate in Vietnam, just as it did in other countries with more liberal traditions. Nearly 20 years ago, the United Kingdom removed the “need for a father” clause from its fertility law, replacing it with a “need for supportive parenting” requirement. It was a compromise that acknowledged not every child must be raised in a traditional two-parent household, but every child deserves love and care. Numbers aside, the pattern is clear: many single women long to become mothers in a way that is legal, transparent and respected. That is why the phrase “single women upon request” in Vietnam’s new law moved me so deeply. It is the recognition that a woman’s desire to have a child is not something to be explained away or deferred until she meets the right partner. It is a fundamental human wish: to create life, to nurture it, to leave behind a part of oneself before this finite life ends. Society may debate. Laws may shift again. But no one should need to prove that a woman is “worthy” of becoming a mother. If she has the will to bring a child into the world and the love to raise them, she has already fulfilled the most sacred purpose of life. Read more at:
