Test result awaited in semen case

The Department of Health Service Support is waiting for the results of a test on suspected sperm in a container that a man attempted to carry into Laos last week, the agency’s deputy director-general Thongchai Keeratihuttayakorn said yesterday. 
“We are waiting for the test result from Khon Kaen Hospital before filing a police complaint against the person who attempted to smuggle the semen out of the country. Later we will examine the documents and labels on the semen vials to find the source,” Thongchai said.
“Any individual or medical establishment found to be involved or have colluded in the smuggling will face legal action,” he warned.
Nithinon Srithaniyanan, 25, was arrested and fined Bt200,000 on Thursday at the border checkpoint in Nong Khai for allegedly trying to smuggle out the semen. He was travelling with a nitrogen tank containing six vials of what he has said were human semen. Officials said he had admitted to being hired to carry the semen to a fertility clinic in Vientiane.
Thongchai said yesterday that his agency would also verify a claim by a clinic named Superior ART Centre, which said on Friday that although two of the six vials seized from the suspect were taken from the clinic, they had nothing to do with their transport.
Khon Kaen Hospital, which conducted the test, confirmed yesterday that the substance was semen but it remained unclear if was from humans.
Dr Charnchai Chanworachaikul, director of the hospital, said that he expected the result of the additional tests on the confiscated semen vials to be available tomorrow or Tuesday. “We can confirm that the liquid in the six vials is semen. But it still cannot be confirmed now whether it is from human or animal. There needs to be a DNA test to confirm that,” he said.
The director also said that although the hospital’s experts had confirmed from a preliminary examination that the semen belonged to humans, a scientific test needed to be conducted for reliable confirmation. 
“The hospital will send the test result to the Department of Health Service Support for further investigation and possible legal action,” he added. 
Meanwhile, Angkhana Neela-phaijit, a member of the National Human Rights Commission, said yesterday that the recent arrest has underlined legal issues stemming from the need of many married couples who had fertility problems. “In addition to legally married couples who cannot have children or get pregnancies naturally, there are also an increasing number of LGBT couples who want to have children. This is a complex issue and a challenge for the people involved,” she said in her Facebook post.