Chinese lawmakers have prevented a proposed legal ban on surrogate mothers after they raised objections over its effectiveness. Before the draft was approved, the National People's Congress' Standing Committee trashed the said ban.

Officials had previously placed the ban as part of the amendment draft to China's Law on Population and Family Planning. After careful deliberation, however, the committee removed the provision prior to the draft's final approval on Sunday.

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Zhang Chunsheng of the National Health and Family Planning Commission expressed his reservations about the proposal. "Some members of the standing committee argued that surrogacy cannot be totally forbidden," he said.

Chunsheng added at a news conference on Sunday that even if such a law is in place, affluent people would still be able to go to places where surrogacy is permitted.

The government has intensified its campaign to crack down on medical clinics that provide surrogacy services since April. However, almost no progress was made due to lack of local enforcement support.

Zhang stated that clinics which offer surrogacy services can yield big profits and a prohibition would have resulted in "the healthy operation of the healthcare sector".

Lawyer Li Huijuan contradicts this opinion saying that the result of the development may give room for the resurgence of this practice, increasing cases of surrogacy further. According to her, this may lead to further unregulated surrogacy practice which is damaging to women's rights.

The commission already has ordinances which discourage the use of surrogate mothers.But this is not sufficient as the ban needs to be made into a law to equip enforcement agencies in tackling those who engage in such activities.

Tagssurrogacy, surrogate mother, Legal ban on surrogacy, mother, China Law on Surrogate Mothers