Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)
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Question 86: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if she will introduce legislation governing in vitro fertilisation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39291/09]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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My Department is developing proposals for an appropriate regulatory framework, including legislation, in respect of Assisted Human Reproduction. The work involves, among other things, examining the approaches to regulation in other jurisdictions and considering the ethical and legal issues that arise. It will also take into account any report by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children in response to the referral to it in 2005 of the Report of the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction and the forthcoming judgment of the Supreme Court in the RvR (frozen embryos) case.

The work that the Department of Health and Children is undertaking is intended to result in policy proposals for a legal framework for this area. This work involves exploring and examining areas such as:

legal parentage;

access to treatment services;

certain practices on gametes and in vitro embryos;

donations of sperm, ova and embryos;

arrangements for consent; and

many other areas that are impacted by this wide and complex area.

The development and use of Assisted Human Reproduction technologies raises legal, social and ethical issues that are complex and profound.