title: Legal issues in IVF.
abstract: It is desirable when considering legal issues related to IVF not to restrict attention solely to the impact of laws in existence at the time the IVF technology appeared. Laws then in existence were not designed with IVF in mind. New laws are needed, particularly to deal with legal problems that will arise from 'existing' laws in relation to two unprecedented features of IVF. These are the new technology whereby fertilized human eggs may be frozen, stored and later used for childbearing, and the fact that a 'host' mother may bear an IVF embryo. This chapter has discussed legal issues in IVF by examining in succession: a number of matters of basic social concern that require attention and raise questions that should be answered before new laws are made the need for laws on IVF to rest on clear principles acceptable to the community the application to IVF of 'existing' laws in six countries (France, the United States, Canada, England, Israel and Australia) and the kinds of problem that are thereby raised new laws that have already been created in Australia specifically to regulate IVF, and new laws that are in the course of preparation in the United Kingdom.
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D004624:Embryo Transfer; D005260:Female; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro; D006801:Humans; D007316:Insemination, Artificial, Heterologous; D007878:Legislation as Topic; D008297:Male; D006113:United Kingdom; D014481:United States