O-034 Infertility treatment law making in Europe: the clash of knowledge, ethics and business

Abstract

\n Infertility treatment law making in Europe: the clash of knowledge, ethics and business\n Today, there is no common European set of rules for Assisted Reproduction Technology (ART). ART is now controlled by legislation in almost all European countries, substantial variations exist within the detail of that legislation.\n Main legal differences between countries relate to: embryo selection, particularly by genetic screening, embryo freezing and embryo transfer, preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), oocyte donation, anonymity of gamete donors, surrogacy, patient eligibility criteria (eg, sexual orientation, age), reimbursement and state funding.\n The most complete survey ever of the ART legal and funding framework of 43 European countries was published in the ESHRE medical journal Human Reproduction Open: Calhaz-Jorge C, De Geyter C, Kupka MS, et al. Survey on ART and IUI: Legislation, regulation, funding and registries in European countries. Hum Reprod Open 2020; doi:10.1093/hropen/hoz044.\n Unfortunately, changes of legislation are so dynamic that much of the information in this article is no longer up-to-date.\n Lawyers observe that one of the most important rule of law “When the Law ceases to reflect the realities of Life, it is the Law that will Change” does not work in ART. In regard to this matter dominant rule is: “The Law will change only when it ceases to reflect the government’s point of view and lobbyists’ needs”. Modern medical knowledge and the society’s needs are often not the main concern during the law making discussion.\n The speech discusses the issues related to infertility treatment law making in Europe with a focus of the problem that modern medical knowledge in this process is not taken into account at all. The author diagnoses numerous problem related to determining the border between medical knowledge, ethics and business in law making process.\n The observed problems will be discussed on selected examples (from Poland, Greece and the United Kingdom) during presentation at the ESHRE on-line 37th Annual Meeting.