should locally registered fertility doctors be held accountable for channelling patients to foreign medical establishments?
Boon Chin Heng National University of Singapore, 5 Lower Kent Ridge Road, 119074 Singapore E-mail: denhenga{at}nus.edu.sg’ + u + ‘@’ + d + ”//–> Sir, In many countries where the commercialization of human gametes and embryos is explicitly banned by law, the resultant effect is often severe shortages and long patient waiting lists (McMillan and Hope, 2003; Sidebotham, 2003). This in turn has led to increasing numbers of patients going abroad to seek donated gametes and embryos that are commercially available in a foreign country, in what is commonly referred to as reproductive tourism (Pennings, 2004). A good example is the current situation in the UK, where inadequate monetary compensation (Craft et al., 1997; Johnson, 1997), together with the threat of removal of donor anonymity (Fortescue, 2003) has led to a severe shortage of donated gametes and embryos. This in turn provides a strong impetus for many childless British couples to seek treatment abroad (Sauer, 1997, 2005). The aim
