Legislature's impact on the outcome of infertility treatments – The German political contradiction

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Thaele, Michael | Uszkoreit, Monika

Affiliations: Honorary Chairman, Bundesverband Reproduktionsmedizinischer Zentren Deutschlands (BRZ), Dudweilerstrasse 58, D 66111 Saarbrücken, Germany. Tel.: +49 681 9363215; Fax: +49 681 9363210; E-mail: [email protected] | CEO, Bundesverband Reproduktionsmedizinischer Zentren Deutschlands (BRZ), BRZ Büro Berlin, Torstrasse 140, D 10119 Berlin, Germany. Tel.: +49 30 39494738; Fax: +49 681 373539; E-mail: [email protected]; URL: www.repromed.de

Note: [] Corresponding author

Abstract: To this day, more than three million children worldwide have been born after the treatment with extracorporal assisted reproductive techniques (ART). This makes ART a "tool" in combatting negative population growth in countries with declining birth rates. Germany today shows the lowest reproductive rate since World War II yet legislation closes its eye to the role of reproductive medicine and instead issues counterproductive laws: while vast economic resources are activated to trigger changes in reproductive behavior, couples wanting to bear children by means of assisted reproduction techniques are discouraged by a 50% co-payment towards their treatment. By pointing out the relationship of demographic development, economic value of children and current legislation the article shows the contradiction between legislation and social need.

Keywords: Assisted reproduction techniques, demographic development, IVF, ICSI, German legislation, reproductive medicine, health care, economic value of children

Journal: Pharmaceuticals, Policy and Law, vol. 9, no. 1-2, pp. 221-227, 2007