Assisted Reproductive Tech Bill Submitted to Japan Parliament

   Tokyo, Feb. 6 (Jiji Press)--Japanese lawmakers have submitted to the House of Councillors a bill to establish rules on so-called specified assisted reproductive technology, or fertility treatments that use sperm and eggs donated by third persons.
   The bill, jointly submitted to the upper chamber of parliament Wednesday by the groups of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its Komeito ally as well as Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party) and the Democratic Party for the People in the opposition bloc, is aimed at guaranteeing the right of people born with the use of the technology to know their origins. Specifically, they would be allowed to know the sperm or egg donors' heights, blood types and ages after reaching adulthood.
   Under the legislation, information including the names and My Number personal identification codes of the children, their parents and egg or sperm donors would be kept for 100 years by the National Center for Child Health and Development after it receives such information from medical institutions offering assisted reproduction treatments.
   The planned law would enable the disclosure of the type of information that does not identify donors, such as their heights and blood types, without their consent. The names of donors would be available for disclosure after their deaths if they give consent at the time of donating sperm or eggs.
   Only couples suffering from infertility would be eligible to access assisted reproductive technology, while those in de facto marriages and same-sex couples will be excluded. The bill also prohibits surrogacy, in which a couple's fertilized egg is implanted in a third-party woman, who then gives birth to the child.

(2025/02/06-14:24)

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