Spanish legislation
Assisted Reproduction:
Spanish legislation on assisted reproduction
Spain can boast of having one of the best developed legislations in Europe on Assisted Human Reproduction Techniques (Law 14/2006 of 26 May).
Thus, we can point out that the purpose of this Law is to:
- To regulate the application of scientifically accredited and clinically indicated assisted human reproduction techniques.
- To regulate the application of assisted human reproduction techniques in the prevention and treatment of diseases of genetic origin, provided that there are sufficient diagnostic and therapeutic guarantees and that they are duly authorised under the terms set out in this Law.
- Regulation of the assumptions and requirements for the use of cryopreserved human gametes and pre-embryos.
Any woman over 18 years of age and with full capacity to act may be a recipient or user of the techniques regulated in this Law, provided that she has given her written consent to their use in a free, conscious and express manner. A woman may be a user or recipient of the techniques regulated in this Law regardless of her marital status or sexual orientation.
If the woman is married, the consent of her husband shall also be required, unless they are legally or de facto separated and it is reliably established that this is the case. The consent of the spouse, given prior to the use of the techniques, must meet the same requirements of free, conscious and formal expression.
The recipient woman may request that the application of these techniques be suspended at any time prior to the embryo transfer and this request must be complied with.
Donation shall be anonymous and the confidentiality of donors' identity data shall be guaranteed by the gamete banks, as well as, where appropriate, by the registers of donors and the activity registers of the centres that are set up.
Semen may be cryopreserved in approved gamete banks for the lifetime of the male from whom it is derived.
Pre-embryos left over from the application of in vitro fertilisation techniques which are not transferred to the woman in a reproductive cycle may be cryopreserved in banks authorised for this purpose.
Duly authorised centres may carry out pre-implantation diagnosis techniques for the detection of serious hereditary diseases of early onset and not susceptible to postnatal curative treatment in accordance with current scientific knowledge, in order to carry out embryo selection of unaffected pre-embryos for transfer or the detection of other alterations that may compromise the viability of the pre-embryo.
The filiation of children born with assisted reproduction techniques shall be regulated by civil law.
