Dados do Trabalho

Title

Impacts of the absence of legislation on assisted reproductive technology in Brazil

Objective

Assisted reproductive technology (ART) is a multidisciplinary field of study, which allows people with any reproductive obstacles to be able to generate offspring. ART techniques changed human relationships and presented conflicts and ethical dilemmas.
Over the decades ART implemented several changes, however Brazilian legislation has not followed suit, which means up to this day we do not have a Law on the subject. The task of regulating the issue was left to the Brazilian Federal Council of Medicine, Conselho Federal de Medicina (CFM), which has no Legislative Power. All legislative power is vested in the Federal Congress, meaning that it is the only part of the government that can make new laws or change existing laws. Therefore, CFM regulations are only administrative in nature, not enforceable to patients and other professionals involved in ART procedures. Those regulations only have ethical implications for professionals and medical institutions.

Methods

For this research we used the qualitative method and a survey of Brazil's legislation on ART.

Results

The absence of legislation on ART means that its practitioners suffer a direct impact on the relationships with patients and other health professionals. Some example of these impacts:
- The administrative nature of CFM regulations does not bring any implications to patients since these regulations are directed to medical professionals and medical enterprises. Thus, in many situations that the current resolution (Resolution CFM nº 2320/2022) does not cover, patients may propose treatments considered ethical violations;
- The absence of a specific law on ART causes legal uncertainty both for patients and for clinics, laboratories and professionals, since there are no consolidated rights and duties;
- The documentation, as well as the entire internal flow of clinics and laboratories tends to be flawed and exposes all theses actors, that are part of the ART process, to eventual damages or worse to civil litigation;
- Situations not foreseen in the CFM resolutions cause doubts and insecurities on the day-to-day activities of ART professionals;
- CFM resolutions are not usually accompanied by explanatory memoranda, which causes doubts, especially of interpretation, for ART professionals, when substantial changes occur between resolutions.
Despite the examples described, the CFM resolutions are extremely important for ART practice. A very positive aspect of CFM's resolutions is the fact that the process of developing and voting on these resolutions is dynamic, different from the legislative process, which can take years and therefore lag behind scientific and social development.

Conclusion

All in all, it would be of great value for ART to rely on the existence of a specific law that addresses general aspects, guarantees rights and defines duties to patients, professionals and institutions, for example the right to discard cryopreserved embryos.
CFM resolutions play an important role in ART and should continue to be encouraged, focusing on technological changes and the dynamism that ART represents to society.

Keywords

CFM. Legislation. Regulation. Legal uncertainty.