Fertility Law: Germany
What are the important things to know about fertility regulations in Germany?
Donor egg treatment is not allowed.
Germany unlike other countries such as Austria, Denmark and The Netherlands, forbids fertility treatment with donor eggs under the German Embryo Protection Act.
Even in countries where egg donation is permitted, the precise legal regulations often vary greatly from one country to another, e.g. the maximum age of donors and recipients, the number of embryos that can be transferred or the anonymity of the donor. The latter in particular can also have an effect on the right of the conceived child to obtain information about its genetic origin. Under certain circumstances, it may not be possible for the child to find out the identity of its genetic mother.
What does that mean for women requiring egg donation to start or grow their families?
It can be difficult as fertility clinics in Germany are unable to offer but also unable to assist couples wishing to pursues this route to parenthood. The laws are strict and so people wanting to know more about the donor egg process have to research the information themselves and navigate their treatment abroad. Denmark, Austria, Ukraine, Portugal, Latvia, Estonia, Mexico, USA, Barbados, The Netherlands, Spain, Russia, the Czech Republic and Greece all legally offer egg donation to couples.
Do you have a partner? Or you’re a single woman?
If you have a husband or a partner, the egg donor IVF programme is open to you in any country of your choice. However, if you are single, the list of overseas clinics that offer IVF or IVF with donor eggs is narrowed down to:
Spain
Portugal
North Cyprus
Greece
Ukraine
Latvia
Estonia
Russia
Mexico
Barbados
USA
Lesbian couples – same sex IVF treatment?
If you are interested in undergoing IVF with donor eggs for same-sex couples, your choice of overseas destinations will be limited to:
Spain
Greece
North Cyprus
Portugal
Finland
Latvia
UK
Barbados
USA
Same sex couples and single woman IVF treatment is not allowed in:
Czech Republic
Poland
Which country has the highest IVF success rate?
According to the ESHRE report (ART in Europe, 2016: results generated from European registries by ESHRE) which includes the data on treatment effectiveness in Europe, pregnancy rates ranged from 13.2% to 57.1% in fresh cycles after IVF or ICSI. For egg donation cycles – most cycles were carried out in Spain, Russia, the Czech Republic and Greece. Pregnancy rates per embryo transfer for cycles with fresh oocytes from a donor are 49.4% on average and for thawed oocytes – 41%. There is a high variability in outcomes for the different countries, ranging between 9.7% and 66.5% for fresh donor eggs and between 29.5% and 67.4% for frozen donor eggs. The ESHRE report shows IVF treatment effectiveness per country – but remember that these are only statistics. In each country, there are clinics that are either more or less effective in terms of IVF treatment.
The most often chosen destinations for German citizens when doing egg donation are:
Czech Republic
Spain,
Portugal,
Ukraine,
Cyprus,
Greece and
Portugal
2. Sperm donation is allowed.
In Germany donor insemination has been legal for about 30 years
Are there any limits as to patient groups that can be treated?
Treatment of heterosexual couples is no problem legally. However treatment of lesbians and single women is only allowed in Berlin. In all states of the country-except Berlin- treatment of lesbian couples is not accepted by physician`s rules and regulations.
Treatment of single women is not illegal, however, as there is no donor anonymity and no way to guarantee that the donor cannot be sued for child support, it is performed rarely. For lesbian couples, even when married, the woman who is not the birth mother cannot be recognised as the child's parent from birth. The sperm provider must sign legal documents giving up parental rights, and then the mother's spouse must adopt the child through a process designed for the adoption of step-children. In contrast, a man whose wife conceives using donor sperm will be recognised as the child's father from birth.
3. Surrogacy is not allowed.
Germany's law governing both surrogacy and gamete donation is the Embryo Protection Act 1990, which has not been updated when Germany introduced civil partnerships for same-sex couples in 2001 and same-sex marriage in 2017. Laws around assisted reproduction have failed to catch up. Surrogacy remains illegal in Germany – including criminal sanctions for clinicians who inseminate or transfer an embryo to 'a woman who is willing to leave her child permanently to a third party after birth'. This affects both heterosexual and same-sex couples, but the effect falls disproportionately on gay males.Under German law, the surrogate is the presumed legal mother of the child.