The legal situation regarding assisted reproduction in Germany

Current and proposed laws regarding the practice of assisted conception and preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) in Germany are discussed in this paper. Strict limits on scientific and clinical studies into assisted conception that were imposed by legislators are analysed in response to modern trends. New laws are in prospect, and discussions on their form are attracting much debate. Ethical issues cover donor insemination and surrogate motherhood, and increasingly involve intracytoplasmic sperm injection. The limit of three fertilized oocytes, and cryopreservation of pronucleate eggs only, will probably be retained in any new law. Proposals for PGD are still attracting considerable opposition, in relation to the concept of totipotency that underlined earlier legislation. These attitudes are examined and criticized in this review, and comments that such techniques infringe personal dignity are questioned in some detail. So too are proposals to limit clinicians' liability for a child being born following failure of sterilization, with a recommendation to avoid performing this surgery on the grounds of avoiding future financial burdens for the couple. Possible future legislation is considered briefly at the conclusion of the article.