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Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, after attending a radio programme this morning (October 30):
Reporter: You talked a lot about the possibility of any subsidies for couples in need of fertility treatment. What sort of difficulties are there when considering such a proposal, and you also expressed some reservations on it. Why is that?
Secretary for Food and Health: Firstly, I must say that the Government has only raised in the consultation document (on population policy) the issue for the public to discuss. We hope that through the consultation exercise, we can hear more opinions from the public on the appropriateness of subsidising infertile couples in Hong Kong to receive reproductive technology services. Therefore, I would say that the Government should not and does not have a foregone conclusion or tendency on this particular aspect. Secondly, in order to consider whether this should be provided to the public, I think there would be at least two aspects for consideration, namely the overall priority of resources deployment, especially in the public health care services, and the need for the relevant parties to go through a careful planning and development process to ensure that there will be adequate well-trained specialists to provide such service.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Issued at HKT 13:09
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