Official: inspection underway on reported import of human sperm
Health officials are investigating a report that human sperm has been imported into Laos, a senior government official has said. Lao law prohibits the trade of human organs including blood and sperm, Director General of Health Care Department under the Ministry of Health Associated Professor Dr Chanphomma Vongsamphan told Vientiane Times on April 24. Thai media reported on Saturday that a man attempting to smuggle what is believed to be human sperm out of Thailand to another fertility clinic in neighbouring Laos was arrested recently. Mr Nithinon Srithaniyanun, the courier, told Thai authorities that he had picked up sperm from four clinics in Bangkok for delivery to another fertility clinic in the Lao capital of Vientiane, Thailand’s The Nation reported, citing the authorities in charge. Mr Nithinon was earlier arrested by authorities at the Thai-Laos Friendship Bridge checkpoint in the northeastern Thai province of Nong Khai where he attempted to smuggle six tubes of what is believed to be human sperm stored in a frozen nitrogen tank into Laos.
