HYEC - The Best English Speaking Club in Hanoi (since 1992) - CLB Tiếng Anh lâu đời nhất Hà Nội

"Reproduction for Hire" (Đẻ Mướn) is one of the first ever made-in-Vietnam movies about sex and marriage life. In the movie, Vân, a loving but infertile wife, decides to give her husband (Bảo) a child by hiring another woman (Mai) to sleep with him.

Despite the fact that this practice is illegal, it is quite widespread, especially in the poorest rural regions of Vietnam. For many poor couples, it is too expensive to have an IVF (in vitro fertilization), and the easiest way to obtain a biologically related child is to hire someone else to have sex with the husband (or with the wife, if it is the husband who is infertile).

Because it is not officially sanctioned and protected by the law, there have been many conflicts related to this practice. For example, the hired mother/father may decide later that they want to claim the right to her/his child. Even worse, many hired women tried to blackmail their “employees” into giving them large sums of money in order for the truth to remain a secret. And for these reasons, many people want this practice to be legalized so hiring couples can protect their rights.

Discussion

1. Can you think of any humanitarian reasons that might support the legalization of this practice?
2. What complications (or disadvantages) this practice might bring if it is legalized?
3. Sensitive question: If you were infertile, would you let your husband/wife to have sex with someone else?
4. If it was possible to have an exact copy of yourself via the process of human cloning, would you want a copy?

Vocabulary

reproduction (noun):

sự sinh sôi, sinh sản. reproduction system = hệ sinh sản

for hire (adjective phrase, noun + “for hire”):

người làm thuê / vật cho mướn. E.g.: nurse for hire = hộ lý ở nhà riêng; “This car is for hire.” = “Chiếc xe ôtô này là xe thuê.”

widespread (adjective):

phổ biến

rural (adjective):

thuộc về nông thôn

In Vitro Fertilization (medical term):

thụ tinh trong ống nghiệm

sanction (verb/noun):

chấp nhận, phê chuẩn, ủng hộ

blackmail (verb):

tống tiền

illegal / legal (adjective) / legalize (verb):

bất hợp pháp / hợp pháp / hợp pháp hóa

We had a lot of fun in the game of "Acting/guessing the words" today. In the game, the word "book-keeper" came up but I had to cross it out because it's such an advanced word that it confused the heck out of everyone.

"Book-keeper" is not some kind of "nhân viên thư viện/người giữ sách" like almost everyone thought, but is actually "kế toán viên". This article on "bookkeeping" explains much better than I could ever try.

—DNT

4 hours with some "EC" gave me a lot of fun. And the discussion turned out to be excited and funny, not just serious as i thought.
Thanks to you humorous contributors ^^

@Huyền : Thanks for your nice words to all of us.We are always like that…and still more interesting & surprise things are waiting for you ahead…Come to join HYEC regularly and feel those things…^_^

It seems that HYEC's topics are all up-to-date issues:D Keep going on ^ ^