Assisted Reproduction

What should we know about the legislation in connection with the assisted reproduction in Bulgaria?

According article 129 and following of the Law on Health the assisted reproduction apply when the state of man or woman does not allow the implementation of the reproductive function naturally. You should know that in order to make the artificial insemination procedure is necessary to obtain written informed consent from individuals wishing to create offspring, and conducting medical research to ensure the health of offspring.
The assisted reproduction is done under medical standard adopted by ordinance by the Minister of Health, namely: Regulation ¹ 28 of 20.06.2007 on for activities in assisted reproduction issued by the Minister of Health, Act., SG. 55 îò 6.07.2007 ã. 55 of 6.07.2007 on. All procedures, requirements and conditions for carrying out activities in assisted reproduction is determined by regulations of the Minister of Health and in the structure regulations of the Bulgarian Executive Transplant Agency.

What includes the assisted reproduction?

The assisted reproduction includes activities associated with:
1. use of medical methods of fertilization of ovum,
which is located inside or outside the body of the woman;
2. making, expertise, processing, labelling
and the storage of egg, spermatozoa or ovum;
3. making ovum from a woman
and its placing in the body of the same woman;
4. making ovum from a woman
and its placing in the body of another woman.
Necessary conditions for taking eggs from a donor
in cases item 4 above are:
1. the donor is an adult and is not under a judicial;
2. the medical center has received written consent from the donor,
authenticated by a notary, in whose area of operation is healing facility, which will take place;
3. the donor is informed of the risks in clear, accessible language, which assumes;
4. mental and physical health of the donor is established by the Protocol, signed by the members of the committee appointed by the Director of healing institution making the claim, which consists of at least three doctors who did not participate in the composition of the team in the claim.

Who has access to information relating to donations of genetic material and what responsibility the persons who disseminate such information?

Medical establishments organize its activities in compliance with the Personal Data Protection Act, employees are responsible for the dissemination of official information.
Dissemination of data that can serve to identify the donors or recipients of ova or sperm when the donor is a person other than the man and woman wishing to create offspring, is prohibited, except as provided by law. The data in the register of the healing facility is service information and it is stored for 30 years.
There is criminal liability in article 284 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Bulgaria for non-observing the legal standards persons:
1. An official who, to detriment of the state, an enterprise, an organisation or an individual, announces to another or promulgates information entrusted to him or accessible by virtue of office, and for which he knows that they represent official secret, shall be punished by imprisonment of up to two years or by corrective labour.
2. The punishment for an act under para 1 shall also be imposed on a non-official working in a state establishment, enterprise or public organisation, to whom, in connection with his work, has become known certain information representing official secret.

Who can be a donor?

The law prohibits artificial insemination of ovum with sperm from a donor who has blood relationship in a straight line and by the lateral branch to the fourth degree with the woman, which is the ovum. The fact is attested by a written declaration of the persons wishing to create offspring, which also expresses their consent to perform the procedure. We can summarise the conditions which should be responsible the donor: to be at least 18 years old, not an inherited chronic disorders, is not under a judicial, is informed of the risks it takes in connection with the procedure carried out by making seed liquid or ovum, for the purpose and nature of the claim, and for research, which will be made to agrees that it be carried out genetic screening for the presence or absence of avtozomal recessive genetic disorders.

What are the types of donation?

Donation may be with direct or indirect use. "Direct use" is a procedure in which cells are taken and used without being processed and stored. For the "indirect use" the opposite is true.
Partnership donation is the donation of reproductive cells from male to female, where they have declared prior to the doctor, who will make the claim that they want to set up joint offspring.
Non-partnership donation - here the donor and the recipient have no connection, it is so called anonymous donation. "Recipient" is the person to whom provide gametes or ovum for the purpose of reproduction.
There is still donation of ova from relatives, as sisters, cousins and etc.

Does the donor knows who is the recipient of the genetic material and vice versa?

Created a database in the form of a register not allowed to provide information on the anonymous donor and the recipient of its opposite. In this context you will not be allowed to see a free catalogue containing photographs and personal information of donors to make their choice. Data for donor and recipient are matched only by unique identification numbers. But, for once, when talking about partnership and donation of sperm in the family and donation of ova from relatives, then no obstacle data to be aware of both countries.

Can a donor to refuse and to withdraw the provided genetic material?

Yes, for the donation of sperm - informed consent may be withdrawn until the use of genetic material, for the donation of ova - donations may withdraw at the time of fertilization, by written request.

Does donation paid in Bulgaria?

It is prohibited to offer tangible benefit to a donor of ova or sperm and acceptance of material benefit from the donor. According to the medical standard - an annex to Regulation ¹ 28 in 2007, in the field of the assisted reproduction is NOT allowed: the commercial usage of the donated sperm, ova and embryos; it is prohibited to supply the donors with genetic material for benefits and the adoption of such from the donors; it is only allowed them to recover costs incurred in reasonable amounts related to the act of donation. The provision is based on article 131, para 7 of the Law on Health, which specifies that still the donor should be indemnified of it costs incurred in the donation:
- For using transport;
- For causing temporary incapacity, pain or discomfort;
- For specific loss of earnings (loss of time, the daily earnings, etc.)
Our partner Medical Center "ReproBioMed" carry out all medical activities related to research, training and continuous monitoring of individuals, using the assisted reproduction and control their health condition at birth of the fetus.

Does the legislation allows you to specify in advance what sex the child will be /a child conceived through assisted reproduction/, as medicine has the means to do so?

The medical standard introduces a number of prohibitions on the use of methods of sex selection, except for cases in which there are specific medical indications (gender-related genetic disorders). The same applies to reproductive cloning. We find confirmation in article 135 of the Law on Health.