For years there has been little
legislation directly impacting or regulating assisted reproduction. However, in
recent months all across the country, including possibly in the state where you
live, there have been an unprecedented number of legislative proposals relating
to assisted reproduction that could have both positive and negative impacts on
your assisted reproduction journey. These bills, if they become law, could
eventually have dramatic consequences, so it’s important to stay up to date! To
help you sift through it all, we’ve compiled this legislative update which
contains a very brief summary of the proposals and their current status.
If you think any of these proposals
could impact you, be sure to obtain updated legal advice particular to your
situation from an experience assisted reproduction law firm, and particularly
from an attorney licensed in the state whose laws impact your journey.
AZ SB 1306 and SB 1307 would
regulate the informed consents you sign at a doctor’s office and would restrict
stem-cell research.
SB 1306 dictates information to be
included as part of the informed consent process, including a list of specific
information to be provided to potential egg donors prior to screening or
testing them for possible donation. The
initial version of the bill would have banned the purchase, offer to purchase
or advertisement for the purchase of human eggs (in effect denying
SB 1307 places a number of
restrictions on stem-cell research.
Both bills were signed into law in April 2010.
CA AB 995 regarding tissue bank licensing.
This bill is inactive.
CA AB 1317 would require disclosure
of risks and other factors in egg donor advertisements. This bill is inactive.
CA
AB 2426 would require non-attorney surrogacy practitioners to deposit their
clients' unearned funds (funds for the surrogacy) into either an: (1)
independent and bonded escrow company, or (2) a trust account maintained by an
attorney. This bill is currently pending.
FL S 7062, the Florida Assisted
Reproductive Technology Act, would have defined an agency as any organization
or individual who provides a database, matching or third party reproductive
service (there were no requirements related to agency training, education, or
licensure). The Act would have required agencies to conduct mental health evaluations
and criminal background checks on donors, gestational surrogates and intended
parents every two years and would prohibit donors or gestational surrogates who
are not US citizens or permanent residents. This died in committee but may
re-emerge in the next legislative session.
IL HB 1082 (2009) amends a variety
of Illinois statutes and would require an insurer, upon request of an insured
intended parent, to provide maternity coverage for a gestational surrogate as a
dependent for a term that extends throughout the duration of the expected
pregnancy and for 8 weeks after the birth of the child. This is currently
assigned to the Insurance Committee of the IL House of Representatives and
would be effective immediately if passed; however, it appears this bill has
effectively died in committee.
KS SB 509 creates women's health and
embryo monitoring program to collect and retain in "perpetuity" 70
data items, much of which is already collected and reported by the CDC. In addition, this bill requires tracking all
eggs retrieved, fertilized, transplanted, frozen, and discarded, the status of
all embryos, the number and type of fetal reductions, method for monitoring the
health of patients even after they are no longer patients, and a reporting of
how clinics are paid (failure to report or falsely reporting can result in
felony charges). It is unlikely this bill will be acted upon in the current
legislative session.
MD S 19 proposed reducing the two
year wait period to one year for purposes of insurance coverage. This bill
failed in committee.
MD
HB 281 and SB 585 proposed to establish a commission on surrogate parenting to
evaluate the health and social well being of children born as a result of
surrogacy. This bill failed in committee.
MA S 485 would update the definition
of infertility by shortening the time periods for trying to conceive required
before for applicability of insurance coverage. This bill is still in committee
(it is currently in front of the Ways and Means Committee. The bill must pass
through this committed and both houses before July 31 or the bill will likely
be prohibited from being reintroduced due to the MA Governor’s proposed 2-year
moratorium on expanded mandated benefits.
MI
SB 647-652 and companion bills HB 5129-5134, impose reporting requirements on assisted
reproduction clinics in addition to those already in place, including tracking
and reporting of all embryos. This bill also proposes to standardize informed
consent for ART and restricts stem cell research which was approved last year in
a
MN SF 436/HF 890 adds presumption of
parentage to paternity/maternity laws in favor of all intended parents in
third-party ART matters. This bill has passed through committees in both the MN
house and senate and awaits floor votes in each but appears to be stalled as of
the date of this publication.
MO HB 1035 requires group health
insurance policies providing coverage for more than 25 employees to also cover
the diagnosis and treatment of infertility, including up to four cycles of IVF.
This bill is still in committee.
MS Initiative Measure No. 26 is a ballot
initiative seeking an amendment to the state constitution which would define an
unborn child as a human being starting at fertilization. This initiative is on the Fall 2010 ballot. Under
the express terms of the Mississippi Constitution, the Bill of Rights cannot be
amended by the initiative mechanism and it will likely be struck down in court.
OK HB 3077 would prohibit
compensation to egg donors, but it died for lack of action by the OK senate
committee. This bill is dormant at the
moment but is expected to be re-introduced in the next legislative session.
TN SB 2136 and HB 2159, the Embryo
Donation and Adoption Act, deems a child born from donated embryos as having
been adopted and grants the same legal protections without court action. This
bill also requires clinics to develop written contracts transferring ownership
of embryos from donor to intended parents and to keep records for 21 years.
This bill is in front of the judicial committee.
Virginia
VA SB 69 reduced the time requirement for a gestational carrier to give her
consent to intended parent’s parentage to 3 days (and up to 180 days); allows
matching of surrogates and intended parents but only where no compensation is
involved; and applies only to married intended parents (single intended parents
are not disallowed, they are just not specifically included in the language of
this bill).
WA HB 2793 proposed to legalize
compensated surrogacy in
2010ãCopyright
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