IVF Prohibition In Costa Rica

IVF PROHIBITION IN COSTA RICA

In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) is unconstitutional in Costa Rica since 2000, when sentence 2000-02306 dictated by the Constitutional Room of the Supreme Court of Justice of the State of Costa Rica, prohibited its use because it was considered that it violated life. (Available at: http://www.vidahumana.org/vidafam/repro/costarica-invitro.html). This ruling of the Supreme Court of Costa Rica could be against the right to found a family and to have access to health, expressed in the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights of the UN: -Article 16.1- all men and women have right, without restriction for reason of race, nationality, or religion to marry and found a family; and - Article 25- everyone is entitled to the benefit of the highest possible level of physical and mental health. Likewise, according to the World Health Organization (W.H.O.), health is the complete state of physical, psychic and social well-being, and not only the absence of disease. Furthermore, studies made at the University of Harvard, have demonstrated that most people consider that to have children is an essential element of life, and that not being able to have them can cause a strong depression, similar to the one experienced by people knowing that they have cancer (Domar A.). Furthermore, the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights, also demands freedom of religion; many of the arguments against the use of IVF in this sentence are of religious nature. A group of 15 couples demanded to state of Costa Rica at the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (CIDH), which admitted the request in 2004. This acceptance demonstrates the importance dispensed to the protection of sexual and reproductive rights; no resolution has yet been emitted. What do you think you on this sentence? What would you say to the CIDH if you were called to defend the rights of patients?