The staff of the Global Legal Research Directorate of the Law Library of Congress has recently completed a comparative report, Regulation of IVF and Related Issues. The report examines the rules regarding embryos created through artificial reproductive technology techniques, such as those involving in vitro fertilization (IVF), in the following countries: France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
Among issues addressed by the report are the legal limits on the number of embryos that can be created or transferred in a treatment cycle and the actions that can be taken with respect to the embryos created, apart from transfer to a person’s uterus as part of that cycle. Such actions include preimplantation genetic testing, sex selection for nonmedical purposes, cryopreservation and storage, donation to another person or couple, disposal or destruction, and allowing the embryos to be used for research purposes. The report further addresses countries’ requirements for facilities where IVF procedures are conducted, registries of procedures and donors, funding of procedures, and the existence of restrictions in access to IVF procedures for certain groups of patients and couples.
The report consists of a comparative summary, individual country surveys, and a table providing information on the legal treatment of embryos created through IVF.
We invite you to review the information provided in our report here.
This report is an addition to the Law Library’s Legal Reports (Publications of the Law Library of Congress) collection, which includes over 4,000 historical and contemporary legal reports covering a variety of jurisdictions, researched and written by foreign law specialists with expertise in each area. A search for legal reports on human reproduction identifies a number of relevant entries.
To receive alerts when new reports are published, you can subscribe to email updates and the RSS feed for Law Library Reports (click the “subscribe” button on the Law Library’s website).
The Law Library also publishes articles related to assisted reproduction in the Global Legal Monitor.
And finally, a search of our blog, In Custodia Legis, using the term “embryo” may lead you to posts on a variety of related topics.
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