Abstract
The recognition of reproduction as a fundamental right, including the right to use artificial reproductive techniques, imposes the revaluation of traditional legal limits imposed on the use of those techniques, grounded on age, health condition, civil state or sexual orientation.
This article will analyse the restrictions that have been legally imposed in the access to medically assisted procreation techniques, its motivation and legitimacy, in comparison with the content that has been recognized to the right to reproduction. This article does not intend to focus on the practice of a single country, nor to analyse a specific legislation, but rather to assess the limitations that can be imposed by the lawmaker regarding the access to medically assisted procreation techniques, invoking as example norms in place in several European jurisdictions.
The main question to be answered is if the lawmaker (based in the analysis of selected jurisdictions) has legitimacy to establish who can have children using assisted reproductive techniques and which requirements can be set in this regard.
Keywords
Assisted reproduction; reproductive rights; morality; family