07. 10. 09. - 16:00

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07. 10. 09. - 16:00

Protests over ban on paid IVF in Romania

Romanian Times

The infertile parents association today (Weds) blasted a Health Ministry order to ban all in-vitro fertilisations (IVF) for payment.

That order followed the human-egg trafficking scandal at the Sabyc clinic in Bucharest.

Romania’s National Transplant Agency (ANT) today proposed that the Health Ministry amend the order recently issued by former Health Minister Ion Bazac.

An 23 September order by Bazac, who resigned last week, said no clinic could provide IVF procedures in Romania on a payment basis. In Romania, such procedures are not covered by health insurance.

Bazac’s order banned paid in-vitro fertilization and artificial insemination and said that assisted reproduction procedures fell into the category of human-egg trafficking.

The order, published in the Official Journal of Romania on 29 September, annulled an article of the law regulating transplant procedures whereby state-run hospitals and private clinics were allowed to perform paid in-vitro fertilization and artificial insemination.

Failure to observe the new rules will be punished with three to ten years’ imprisonment.

The SOS Infertilitatea association protested in an official letter against the order, saying it would lead to the stopping of procedures at self-financed clinics.

"In Romania, infertile couples, to whom the Romanian state offers no help, have no access to these procedures in clinics where they have to be paid for."

Associations that represent infertile couples say the order does not ban the commercialisation of human eggs – which is already banned by law – but bans making a profit from human reproduction procedures.

"In consequence, medical units that used to do IVF are not motivated any more to continue them for infertile couples even though they are ready to pay. They could no longer see their dream of having a child come true," the letter reads.

Over 6,000 children have been born in Romania through artificial inseminations in the last two years, according to the National Transplant Agency.

Romanian organized crime prosecutors have been investigating members of a network who allegedly brought couples who couldn’t have children to Romania and then got in touch with people who donate human eggs for money.

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