Page 4 - FSANZ AUTUMN -2023

President’s Report: Legal review aims to
The FSANZ Board, along with the IVF Medical Directors’ Group and RTAC have agreed to implement an in-depth legal review of the RTAC Code of Practice.
The code is due for its regular review this year after a series of delays and disruptions because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the legal examination will be a further layer in this process.
This is necessary to address any areas of ambiguity in the code where it may be open to interpretation or conflicting opinions.
A legal firm has been appointed to assist in the review that aims to “future proof” the code with greater clarity in its content.
Mitochondrial Donation
This edition features details of the much anticipated announcement of funding to implement a clinical trial of mitochondrial donation in Australia.
This makes Australia only the second country in the world where a government sanctioned clinical trial of this nature is being conducted.
FSANZ was an active participant in urging legislative amendments and changes to regulations to allow mitochondrial donation in Australia.
This is an important step forward to help overcome the genetic linking of this debilitating and life threatening disease.
The legislative change was known as Maeve’s Law, named after Victorian girl Maeve Hood, who lives with Leigh syndrome, a severe disorder in which the body’s cells fail to produce enough energy.
Donor Sperm Register
FSANZ supports moves to establish a national sperm donation register in view of dangers associated with unregulated on-line sperm donations and home insemination.
There are also growing concerns about on-line “prolific sperm donors” offering their services with some donors having created significantly more families than legally allowed when inseminations are offered through accredited clinics.
Undoubtedly, many of these donor-conceived children will struggle growing up knowing that they are part of large group of half-siblings, and it also raises the real prospect of accidental consanguinity.
FSANZ supports the rights and desires of people to start their own families, but unregulated on-line sperm donation presents considerable medical and legal risks for all parties and particularly for children donor conceived in this way.
Luk Rombauts
Unregulated on-line sperm donation presents considerable medical and legal risks for all parties and particularly for children donor conceived in this way
With on-line sperm donations there are no appropriate screening protocols for sexually transmitted or genetically linked diseases, no professional counselling to help people make informed decisions about this procedure, along with the potential of frightening legal ramifications.
In accredited fertility clinics, all sperm donations are recorded, and professional screening and quarantining procedures are in place as accepted practice to provide appropriate health safeguards.
Donor recipients can have confidence in these procedures as they are independently audited by RTAC.
The RTAC Code of Practice details how donated gametes and embryos are handled by a licensed fertility clinic so that donors and recipients are properly identified, and the risk of infection is minimised.
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