Midtown Blogger/Manhattan Valley Follies: Warsaw Voice- New Laws about Allowing IVF Pass Despite Stiff Opposition

The Warsaw Voice » Law » June 26, 2015

Polish lawmakers approve law regulating IVF

June 26, 2015

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Sejm, the lower chamber of the Polish parliament, adopted a government bill on financing in vitro fertilization, rejecting opposition amendments on limiting the availability of the procedure to marriages and limiting the number of fertilized eggs which may be used in an in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure, the MPs decided on Thursday.

261 lawmakers voted for the bill and 176 against with six abstentions. Most of the ruling coalition voted for the bill, while the main opposition, conservative, Law and Justice (PiS) party voted against, saying that IVF breaks the constitutional right to life and treats embryos as an object rather than a human being.

"I'm very pleased, this is a great success for freedom in Poland. This grants a great chance for happiness to people with a great problem," Kopacz told reporters after the vote.

The vote is a big step toward giving an adequate legal framework for IVF which was performed in Poland for the last 25 years but remained unregulated because of opposition from tthe Catholic Church and the right.
Kopacz said that the lack of regulation on IVF made it "morally ambiguous" and "potentially dangerous" from a medical point of view.
The IVF will be available to married and unwed couples.The procedure will be available to couples who for at least 12 months had no results from any other method.

The new laws embrace all forms of infertility, which has become a civilizational ailment affecting around 1.5 million couples in Poland.

The legislation forbids the creation of embryos for purposes other than in vitro conception. It also forbids the destruction of healthy embryos.

It says that spare embryos, if unused by the couple for 20 years, can be offered for adoption, but not destroyed.