Bosnia and Herzegovina is the only country in Europe without a law on medically assisted reproduction

The Chairperson of the Commission for the Achievement of Equality of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH PA) Mirsad Isaković, Deputy Chairperson Diana Zelenika and member of the Commission Maja Gasal – Vražalica spoke today with specialists in medically assisted reproduction about the text of the Framework Law on infertility treatment by medically assisted reproduction, reports the BiH news agency Patria.

According to the members of the Commission for the Achievement of Gender Equality, the goal of this law is to enable procreation and family planning for married or unmarried couples and women with infertility through medically assisted reproduction procedures, as well as to enable them to exercise their basic human right guaranteed by both international and domestic documents, while ensuring quality and safety in all medically assisted reproduction procedures, in line with the achievements of biomedical science and the regulations of the European Union.

Furthermore, they informed the specialists in this field, Senad Mehmedbašić, Ermin Čehić, and Senad Sarić, that the Federation of BiH and Republika Srpska have not legally regulated this area; instead, in the entities, this complex matter is regulated by bylaws, which is certainly not enough and, due to legal loopholes, leaves a great possibility for arbitrariness in decision-making and abuse in practice.

Therefore, as they emphasized, this area should first be regulated by a Framework Law at the state level, which would simultaneously prescribe the obligation for the entities and Brčko District to adopt their own laws and bylaws to regulate this area comprehensively.

Senad Mehmedbašić, Ermin Čehić, and Senad Sarić emphasized that BiH is the only country in Europe that has not legally regulated this area, and it should be legally regulated because, according to World Health Organization standards, marital infertility is recognized as a disease. Accordingly, they said, the absence of legal regulation in this area means that the residents of BiH have been deprived of a basic human right, which is the right to treatment.

At the end of the meeting, the specialists in medically assisted reproduction emphasized that they have no fundamental objections to the text of the Framework Law, but that during its adoption, basic human rights and freedoms must be taken into account when it comes to exercising the rights provided for by this legal solution.