Human rights to in vitro fertilization
Open accessAbstract
The Inter‐American Court of Human Rights (the Court) has ruled that the Supreme Court of Costa Rica's judgment in 2000 prohibiting in vitro fertilization (IVF) violated the human right to private and family life, the human right to found and raise a family, and the human right to non‐discrimination on grounds of disability, financial means, or gender. The Court's conclusions of violations contrary to the American Convention on Human Rights followed from its ruling that, under the Convention, in vitro embryos are not “persons” and do not possess a right to life. Accordingly, the prohibition of IVF to protect embryos constituted a disproportionate and unjustifiable denial of infertile individuals' human rights. The Court distinguished fertilization from conception, since conception—unlike fertilization—depends on an embryo's implantation in a woman's body. Under human rights law, legal protection of an embryo “from conception” is inapplicable between its creation by fertilization and completion of its implantation in utero.
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Addressing infertility is fundamental to realizing the right of individuals and couples to found a family.
“Therefore, addressing infertility is fundamental to realizing the right of individuals and couples to found a family (Zegers‐Hochschild et al., 2013; Mburu et al., 2023).”
From Declining global fertility rates and the implications for family planning and family building: an IFFS consensus document based on a narrative review of the literature (2024) · cites this paper as Zegers‐Hochschild et al., 2013
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- Authors
- Zegers‐Hochschild, F., Dickens, B. M., & Dughman‐Manzur, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Dickens, Bernard M.
- Venue
- International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2013-08-06
- Volume
- 123
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 86-89
- ISSN
- 0020-6695 (ISSN-L)
- 0020-7292
- 1879-3479
- OpenAlex
- W2003603355
- Cited by
- 57
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 2
- FWCI
- 9.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- TSpace (University of Toronto) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › International Human Rights and Reproductive Law
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Medical and Health Sciences Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Reproductive Medicine › Reproductive Health and Technologies
- Keywords
- in vitro fertilization, human rights, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, right to respect for private and family life, non-discrimination, embryo personhood, right to life, infertility, American Convention on Human Rights, reproductive rights
- MeSH terms
- Costa Rica, Female, Fertilization, Fertilization in Vitro, Humans, Human Rights, Embryo Implantation, Reproductive Rights
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