Costa Rica: Ban on In Vitro Fertilization Is Struck Down
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Version 0 of 1. A Costa Rican ban on in vitro fertilization has been struck down by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in a decision that reproductive health groups said could lead to greater access to abortion and some contraception in other Latin American countries. The court said in a ruling late Thursday that a longstanding Costa Rican guarantee of protection for every human embryo violated the reproductive freedom of infertile couples because it prohibited them from using in vitro fertilization, which often involves the disposal of embryos not implanted in a patient’s uterus. The court said that governments could not give embryos and fetuses absolute protection under the American Convention on Human Rights. The Costa Rican government said that it would comply with the court’s decision and move to allow in vitro fertilization. The advocacy groups said they believed they would now be able to successfully challenge bans like the prohibition of abortion in Chile, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Honduras, which are based in part on the assertion of total protection of life for embryos and fetuses. |