Cabinet approves Assisted Reproductive Technology Regulation Bill, 2020

In news:

• The Union Cabinet has approved the Assisted Reproductive Technology Regulation Bill, 2020 to monitor medical procedures used to assist people to achieve pregnancy.

 

Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART):

• The ART is used to treat infertility.
•  The technology works to remove an egg from a woman’s body and fertilize it with a man’s sperm to make an embryo.
• Assisted reproductive technology includes medical procedures used primarily to address infertility.
• This subject involves procedures such as in vitro fertilization, intracytoplasmic sperm injection, cryopreservation of gametes or embryos, and/or the use of fertility medication.

 

Proposals of the Bill:

• Monitor medical procedures used to assist people to achieve pregnancy. 
• Provides for a national Board which will lay down a code of conduct to be observed by those operating clinics
• Formulate minimum standards for laboratory and diagnostic equipment and practices to be followed by human resources employed by clinics and banks. 
• The States and Union Territories will also have to form State Boards and State authorities within three months of the notification of the proposed legislation. 

 

 

Key features of the bill:

• A National Board will be established which will lay down a code of conduct to be observed by those operating clinics.  The States and Union Territories will also have to form State Boards and State authorities within three months of the notification of the proposed legislation.
• The bill formulates minimum standards for laboratory and diagnostic equipment and practices to be followed by human resources employed by clinics and banks.
• A national registry and registration authority will maintain a database to assist the National Board to perform its functions.
• The Bill also proposes stringent punishment for those who practice sex selection, indulge in the sale of human embryos or gametes and those who operate rackets.

 

Strict punishment:

• India has one of the highest growths in the number of ART centres and ART cycles performed every year.
• India has become one of the major centres of this global fertility industry, with reproductive medical tourism becoming a significant activity.
• This has also introduced a plethora of legal, ethical and social issues; yet, there is no standardisation of protocols and reporting is still very inadequate.
• The Bill thus proposes stringent punishment for those who practise sex selection; indulge in sale of human embryos or gametes and those who operate rackets.

 

 

India and ART

• India has become one of the major centres of this global fertility industry, with reproductive medical tourism becoming a significant activity.
• This has also introduced a plethora of legal, ethical and social issues; yet, there is no standardisation of protocols and reporting is still very inadequate