This case alleged human rights violations resulting from Costa Rica’s prohibition on the practice of in vitro fertilization (“IVF”), which had been in effect in Costa Rica since 2000, following a ruling of the Constitutional Chamber of the Costa Rican Supreme Court of Justice (“Constitutional Chamber”) in which it was held that IVF violated the right to …Read more

Following the birth of their first child, the applicants, Costa and Pavan, discovered that they were carriers of cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease. Their child was born with the disease. A prenatal test confirmed that their second child was also affected by cystic fibrosis. They decided to terminate the pregnancy on medical grounds. The applicants …Read more

N.T.V., a recipient of auxiliary reproductive technology (ART), submitted an application to declare invalid part of an order issued by the Ministry of Healthcare on February 26, 2003. The order (No. 67) approved instruction on the usage of various methods of ART. In particular, N.T.V. objected to paragraph 6, which prevents the establishment of paternity …Read more

Exercising its preliminary control duties, Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus, considered the constitutionality of amendments to the Law of the Republic of Belarus on Auxiliary Reproductive Technologies. This law regulated various assisted reproductive treatments. Such treatments were available to women over the age of 18 if they had full legal capacity, had undergone …Read more

Jocelyn and Mark Edwards were happily married and intended to have a child. They encountered some difficulties in conceiving and consulted a fertility clinic. Both subsequently agreed to in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment. Mark had earlier expressed the importance to him of Jocelyn having their child before he was “unable” to, which was positively supported …Read more

The four applicants in this case were two couples suffering from infertility. The first couple included a woman who suffered from fallopian-tube-related infertility, which prevented ova from passing into her uterus, and her husband, who was infertile. The second couple included a woman who suffered from agonadism, which means she did not produce ova at …Read more

Warren Bazley provided a semen sample (the semen) to the Wesley Monash IVF clinic (IVF Clinic), prior to undergoing chemotherapy, so that his wife (Kate) might conceive their child. Unfortunately, Warren passed away before his wife became pregnant. Following Warren’s death, in response to Kate’s request to continue storing the semen, the IVF Clinic responded …Read more

The applicant ASBL is an activist organization dedicated to the promotion of respect for human life and integrity of the person at every stage of development. The applicant group sought to annul Article 3 of a December 2008 law that allowed a wide range of human bodily material to be obtained and used for the …Read more

The Attorney General (AG) of Quebec challenged the constitutionality of sections 8 to 19, 40 to 53, 60, 61 and 68 of Canada’s Assisted Human Reproduction Act (the “Act”) on federalism grounds. Some of these provisions create or relate to prohibitions on human cloning and various aspects of the commercialization of reproductive materials and functions. …Read more

The appellant, a beneficiary of defendant public health institution Health Service of Castilla-La Mancha (“SESCAM”), received three fertility treatment cycles (two in a private institution and one in a public health institution) with negative results. The appellant then sought new fertility treatments from SESCAM, arguing that she was entitled to funding for three treatments of …Read more