Bill to establish fertility treatment watchdog expected within months
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Legislation establishing an Assisted Human Reproduction Regulatory Authority to oversee fertility clinics and treatments will go before the Dáil within months, the Irish Independent reports.
Dr Tony Holohan, chief medical officer in the Department of Health, yesterday outlined the general scheme of the Assisted Human Reproduction Bill to the Oireachtas health committee.
Some aspects of the bill are expected to be controversial, including a provision allowing parents to select the sex of their child if this is necessary to reduce risk of passing on a serious inherited disease.
TDs were told: “Sex selection would only be permitted where there is a significant risk of a child being born with a serious genetic disease.”
Dr Holohan said the bill’s proposals will go back to the Cabinet for approval in the coming months, and will go before the Dáil once they have been scrutinised by the Attorney General.
The Department of Health will work with the HSE over the course of 2018 to support the commencement of the legislation.
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