Failures of IRI “Embryo Donation Act” based on a comparative study

Gamete and embryo donation is one of the important concepts with which law makers of developed countries have been engaged; this has lead to emergence of various laws in this regard. The same has happened in Iran. However Iranian law has differences with similar regulations, a fact that lays the ground for an amendment of the Iranian law. Regarding gamete donation - which means sperm or ovum donation carried on by a third person current IRI laws are silent and the situation could be revised in due course. Moreover, our Islamic scholars have arguments on the legitimacy of this issue. With regard to the Embryo Donation Law which was passed in 2003 and includes provisions on the condition and formalities of donation and embryo transferring, it seems to have deficiencies in some aspects. For instance, and from a comparative perspective, in France reproduction for third persons including surrogacy is forbidden. On the other hand this issue is not being considered in IRI laws and thus they could be revised in light of comparative studies.

Regarding filiation of the child resulted from embryo donation, the French code has accepted the connection of the child with the receiving parents and also all other related rights including heritage. On the contrary, IRI Code has only dealt with responsibilities of the recipient parents on the subject of caring, training, alimony. In this regard, IRI act suffers from major failures for the rectification of which there is an urgent need of debate and law reforms.