In recent years, ASEAN countries have been reaching new heights in economic growth. However, fertility rates have been declining rapidly. Based on World Bank Data, the fertility rate of all ASEAN countries have dipped below the replacement level at 2.1 children per woman, which is the rate required to enable a population to replace itself from one generation to the next in order to sustain the population levels.

Fertility issues, challenges in accessing infertility treatments, late marriages, delay in giving birth, economic and career reasons, surge in living and education costs, and the mindset of having less children to provide better quality of life are some of the contributing factors to the declining fertility rate. It is expected that with further economic growth, the fertility rate will further decline. Such decline will have dire consequences, socially and economically, to a country as the population size will shrink, society will age, workforce will decrease, and taxpayers will reduce. These will cause a decline in economy and lower quality of life.

This publication provides a snapshot of the various aspects and considerations of IVF laws regulations (including the feasibility of establishing an ART facility to conduct IVF, egg freezing and surrogacy) across ASEAN to date. As the industry is still in its infancy, IVF laws and regulations are still quite scarce for some of the ASEAN countries. We are certain that further laws and regulations will be enacted in the near future following the growth of the IVF industry.