President wants more liberal laws to help infertile couples

25.03.2010

President of Croatia Ivo Josipovic is likely to support the amendment of laws on medically-assisted reproduction in Croatia.

"If even one more baby is born because of freezing embryos, we must change the law," the Croatian daily Jutarnji list has quoted the president saying to Health Minister Darko Milinovic.

Croatian law limits fertilization to three egg cells and bans embryo freezing. It is one of the strictest in the world, with only Bangladesh and El Salvador having similar laws in place.

Karmen Rivoseki Simic from Udruga Roda (Stork Organization) that has protested against those laws in the past said that she was happy that "couples fighting infertility have an ally in President Josipovic."

She added that the organization would officially approach the president and ask him to submit the law for constitutional review.

It is unlikely that the Constitutional Court will act while political and public discussion continues as there is a good chance that the law will be amended in regular parliamentary proceedings.

The Social-Liberal Party in particular has announced that, should statistics show that successful fertilizations have decreased, it will propose an amendment that would remove two of the most contentious measures – limited fertilization and embryo freezing.

Croatia has been experiencing negative population growth since 1991 and a decline in births since 1997. There were 45,807 babies born in 2009. While an increase over 2008, the number was not significant enough to compensate for the negative balance of the last several years. Just last year, there were 8,058 more deaths than births.

The Croatian Times

Read also: