The Bưu Điện Hospital in Hà Nội. — Photo vov.vn

Nguyễn Thị N., of Quế Võ District, Bắc Ninh Province, was certainly surprised when she recently received a phone call asking how she felt after falling pregnant.

That’s because she was in the midst of caring for her seven-month old son and is unable to conceive children without specialised treatment.

A medical worker of the Hà Nội-based Bưu Điện Hospital persisted and asked how she was doing, to which N. replied with confusion that she couldn’t be pregnant and had already recently given birth thanks to IVF treatment, though she still had another embryo deposited for freezing at the hospital.

The worker said he was not mistaken and she had been impregnated with the embryo a long time ago; her family had even confirmed the pregnancy to the hospital. Needless to say, it was a confusing phone call.

N. suspected her embryo had been stolen, but she couldn’t figure out who could have done it.

N. told her husband about the story and he claimed he was just as confused, until N. made him crack.

After being repeatedly questioned, he admitted he had been having an affair with a woman living in the northern province of Bắc Giang since 2016.

The woman - a widower - was also unable to conceive naturally again. Thus, he had taken the embryo from the hospital to get the widower pregnant.

N.’s husband stolen her identity card then went to the hospital with the widower to take the embryo. After fooling the doctors, they performed the necessary procedures to transfer the embryo to the woman and that was that.

According to lawyers, the husband hasn’t done anything illegal, unless he forged a doctor’s signature.

It’s a sad state of affairs when something as horrific as stealing a potential child can’t even be deemed a crime. — VNS