Legal regulation of the use of reproductive technologies in Ukraine

Ukraine belongs to those countries where assisted reproductive technologies (ART) are allowed at the legislative level. Ukrainian reproductive medicine ranks the 4th position in Europe in the number of ART programs per year. However, in Ukraine there is no comprehensive legal regulation of relations arising from the application of ART at the level of a special law.This article is a literature review, the purpose of which was to identify existing developments and develop recommendations on the legal regulation of the use of reproductive technologies in Ukraine. International and regulatory legal documents of Ukraine that regulate issues related to reproductive health are considered. The study of documents was carried out using methods of analysis, synthesis, bibliosemantic and comparative law methods.During a comparison of the legislation regulating the use of ART in Ukraine and abroad, it was established that in Ukraine reproductive health is not yet regulated in as much detail as in European countries. Today, the use of reproductive technologies in Ukraine is regulated only by separate articles of legal acts (the Constitution of Ukraine, the Civil Code of Ukraine, the Family Code of Ukraine, the Law of Ukraine “Basics of the Legislation of Ukraine on Health Care”) and several sub-legal regulatory act. In the absence of a law that would directly regulate the use of reproductive technologies in Ukraine, relations arising during the use of ART are regulated at the level of a sub-legal regulatory act – the Procedure for the use of assisted reproductive technologies in Ukraine, which was approved by the Order of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine from 09.09.2013 No. 787. However, this normative-legal document is intended to regulate the medical and organizational aspects of the activity of a reproductive doctor, defines the conditions and mechanisms of conducting ART and only partially resolves the issue of legal support in this area. At the same time, a list of legally unsettled issues was established and areas for improvement of legislation and legal protection in the field of ART in Ukraine were identified.The legally unregulated principles and issues regarding the use of ART presented in this article require their consideration and approval in a special law that would guarantee a balance of interests of all parties, with the interests of the child as a priority.