Regulations and assisted conception treatment
Laws and regulations governing Assisted Conception Treatments varies between different countries. In some countries such as USA and Australia, each state has its own legislation.
Forms of Assisted Conceptions Treatment
Some countries forbid all forms of assisted conception treatments using donor sperm, donor eggs, donor embryos and surrogacy such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, while others allow donor sperm but no egg or embryo donation and no surrogacy as in Norway and Japan.
The number of embryos to be transferred
Some countries have legislation with limit to the maximum number of embryos to be transferred such as United Kingdom, France, Australia and Germany.
Some countries have guidelines specify limit but no enforcement mechanism such as Egypt, USA and Japan. Whereas, some countries have neither legislation nor guidelines such as Greece and Canada.
The IFFS Surveillance 2010 which looked at the roles and regulations relating to assisted conception of more than 100 countries found 14 countries had an upper limit of three embryos, 12 had a limit of four, and six countries had a limit of five. Kuwait had a limit of six embryos. Panama had no limit on the number of embryos transferred. In the United Kingdom, The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) The maximum number of embryos to be replaced in a women aged 35 year and younger in her first IVF treatment is two and three if older than 40 or have previous failed IVF treatment.
New Belgium legislation imposes on women less than 36 years a restriction to single embryo transfer (SET) in their first treatment cycle.
Freezing spare embryos
Human embryo freezing is allowed in some countries such as UK and not allowed in others as in Sweden.
The storage period also varies from a limited period of 2 years as in Denmark to 10 years as in UK and unlimited period for infertile couples as in Finland.
Anonymity of gamete donors
Countries such as UK, Sweden, Denmark and Norway have passed new legislation abolishing the anonymity of gamete donors (egg, sperm and embryo donors).
Treating single women and unmarried couples
Treating single women is allowed in some countries such as UK, France, Russia but not in others such as Sweden and Denmark. Even in the same countries such as Australia, some estate will allow single women to be treated while others do not.
Mixing eggs, sperm or embryos from more than one person
This is forbidden in the United Kingdom (HFEA Act).