The Need for Specific and Unitary Regulations Regarding Techniques in Connection to or Derived from Medically Assisted Human Reproduction in Romania

Currently, there is no law in Romania regulating how infertile patients can access medically assisted reproductive techniques, to expressly show whether some of these (the most controversial ones) are permitted or not (or we should apply the principle that everything that the law does not prohibit is allowed), under what conditions reproductive rights can be limited, what is the content of the right to reproduction, what is the legal status of the human embryo, and what are the limits of implementing certain medical procedure, whether we should just because they are available, or maybe it would be wiser not to. Discussions are further complicated when we bring into discussion some techniques that are related to assisted reproductive technologies (ART) (ie: those techniques or practices that have developed in parallel with in vitro fertilization, in order to facilitate the success of the technique - surrogacy motherhood, sperm / egg donation, cryopreservation of surplus embryos, posthumous reproduction) or those techniques derived from ART (practices that have become possible due to the ability to create embryos outside the maternal womb - cloning, solo reproduction, embryonic stem cell research, genetic engineering for treating genetic diseases, non-therapeutic genetic engineering for physical or bio-moral improvement, special cases of genetic engineering: artificial embryos, sex selection, germline alteration, human-animal hybrids / chimeras). This paper arguments the necessity for elaborating specific normative regulations in the field of ART and techniques derived from or related to ART.