Soon IVF ban will be overturned in Costa Rica

24.07.2015

Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis announced Wednesday his government will issue a decree to legalize in vitro fertilization, or IVF, putting an end to a 15-year ban on this practice, following an Inter-American Court of Human Rights, or IACHR, order.

According to Solis, "There is no indication political forces have reached an agreement to pass a law regulating IVF," so a legal team is "working on the development of an executive order."

IACHR, during the November 2012 ruling, at the behest of a group of couples who felt their freedom undermined by the ban, condemned Costa Rica for prohibiting this reproductive technique, a ban enacted by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice in 2000.

Solis told the media "I am going to take action since I do not want Costa Rica to face sanctions a second time."

IACHR stated Costa Rica "must approve, as soon as possible, appropriate measures to make void the prohibition of IVF practice so that people wishing to make use of assisted reproduction techniques can do so without any obstacles".

Also the country must "include the availability of IVF in its programs and infertility treatments in its health care, in accordance with the duty to guarantee respect for the principle of non-discrimination."

In June the court said in a statement it has summoned Costa Rican representatives on Sept. 3 to a hearing to report on the progress in the implementation of its judgment.

Costa Rica claims IVF law could not be approved as some legislative members believed discarding fertilized eggs was equivalent to killing living beings.

A group of couples with fertility problems in May requested the government to regulate IVF laws without the support of the Congress.

The couples' lawyer, Hubert May, said 15 percent of the population of the country has fertility problems, of which 5 percent need to undergo techniques such as in vitro fertilization to conceive children.

Based on: laprensasa.com