Lithuanian new law on assisted reproduction meets with criticism

The Lithuanian parliament (Seimas) adopted on Tuesday the Law on Assisted Reproduction Technologies which was met with fierce criticism from a group of lawmakers and the country's health minister.

Following a few years of prolonged debates, the Lithuanian parliament passed the controversial bill aimed at fertility treatment, with 66 lawmakers voting in favour, three against and three abstaining.

Around 100 members of parliament were participating in the sitting, and the rest of them ignored the vote, local media reported.

Opponents claim that the most conservative version of the bill was adopted, eliminating the most advanced methods of treatment including the introduction of embryo freezing.

"I feel ashamed in front of those 50,000 families in Lithuania who waited for this law and will be left with nothing," Lithuania's health minister Juras Pozela was quoted as saying by local website vz.lt, while discussing the bill at the parliament.

"We will have to ask the president to veto the law," Eduardas Sablinskas, lawmaker from Lithuania's ruling Social Democratic Party, was quoted as saying.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite must decide until mid-July whether to sign or veto the bill.

Dangute Mikutiene, chairwoman of the parliamentary committee of health care, underlined that the bill is "well balanced" from the ethical point of view.

"People voted according to their values, their beliefs," she said.

The most intense fight was sparked by the disagreement on whether embryo freezing should be allowed by the law.

The adopted law does not provide a legal basis for embryo freezing and states that only the specific number of embryos which can be planted into the womb can be fertilized at one time.

Currently, assisted reproduction for Lithuanian families is only available at the country's private clinics, therefore, causing the families to cope with high treatment costs.

A total fertility rate in Lithuania currently amounts to 1.6 live births per woman. According to Eurostat, EU statistics office, a total fertility rate of around 2.1 births per woman is considered to be the replacement level in developed countries.

The European Commission, in its country specific recommendations published this May, pointed out Lithuania's worrying negative demographic trends.
Source:XINHUA