Original scientific paper
Legal scope of medical insemination in Croatia
Dubravka Hrabar
; Faculty of law, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The Law on Medical Insemination (2009) helped to resolve a large amount of outstanding issues and conflicts, which on a theoretical level had been building up over the last three decades, ever since new bio-medical opportunities had transcended the (outdated) legal regulations. This regulation has resolved in great detail many different legal issues, which would certainly not qualify it as a conservative law. This regulation has made possible insemination of marital and extra-marital couples, but not persons without a partner. An extra-marital union needs to be confirmed by a certificate issued by a notary public, whereas a heterologous insemination is only allowed when one of the persons has difficulties in procreating. The man and the woman are obliged to have different consultations before the medical intervention. The donor of sex cells can be either a man or a woman, and if married they must obtain the consent of their spouse for donating sex cells. The law sets out a new mode of establishing paternity, additional to those already existing in family law, however the legal solution is rather imperfect, since it leaves room for manipulation and for difficulties in entering the child's paternal origin in the Birth Register. Some of the provisions were amended soon after the Law was passed, however, there are serious objections with regard to their legal validity and scope, especially when the child's right to be informed of his/her parentage is concerned. It seems that the legislator favoured the adult rather than the best interest of the child, limiting the child's right mostly at the request of the donor of the sex cell. Good provisions would be those that regulate different kinds of consultation that men and women must undertake before medical insemination, and also explicit prohibition of certain procedures.
Keywords
medical insemination; married couples; extra-marital unions; donor of sex cells; acknowledgement of paternity; the child's right to be informed of his/her origin
Hrčak ID:
51983
URI
Publication date:
24.4.2010.
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