Laws on national security and medically assisted reproductive techniques were passed yesterday in their first reading at the Legislative Assembly (AL).
The bill did not provoke much debate or inquiry with most of the lawmakers supporting the proposals submitted.
One of the few matters that raised questions at the plenary session was the fact that the bill on medically assisted reproductive techniques establishes that only private and public hospitals can perform such techniques. These techniques aim mostly to solve infertility issues.
On the topic, the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Elsie Ao Ieong, explained that the government insists on the hospitals “because in many places there are records of irregularities [while performing these techniques] and most of these cases happened in private clinics,” she said, noting that the major purpose is to use the new islands hospital complex as the preferred place for these types of medical procedures.
To another question from lawmaker Wong Kit Cheng, the Secretary explained that these procedures are not limited to those couples who have never had children, but may also be offered to those with children who want more. In these cases, “[the procedures are available for those] who haven’t been able to fall pregnant after 12 months of trying.”
Also questioned on potential government support to cover expenses related to the medical procedure, Ao Ieong said that the government “is considering this possibility.”
Last on the agenda of the day at the AL, the new national security law received very few comments from the lawmakers who all voted in favor of it.
Nonetheless, some lawmakers expressed doubts over the lack of a definition of what is a state secret, a fact that the Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak, said will be clearly established in yet another bill, solely dedicated to the matter and that will be soon submitted to the AL.
The Secretary noted in the presentation that the major difference between this law and the regime already in force is that while the current one focuses on the punishment of acts after they have already occurred, the new one focuses on the prevention of these acts.
