Summary of AZ Anti-Infertility Bills
Posted on April 9, 2010
SB1306:
The Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Society of Arizona (REISA), an organization of infertility specialists, embryologists and professionals, oppose SB 1306. They are supported in their opposition by RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association. No physicians or embryologists working in this field were ever consulted during the drafting of this bill.
This bill is anti-family and will severely limit infertility specialists helping Arizonans struggling to build their families. It singles out life-giving, pro-family medical treatments and subjects them to a new regime of Governmental restriction.
Myth: Egg donors are not provided adequate information about the risks of egg donation, including long-term risks of increased ovarian cancer and other types of cancer.
Truth: Physicians are required to provide informed consent to all patients prior to any procedure. The FDA has requirements for tissue donation (egg donation is considered tissue donation), the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) has guidelines for informed consent. In addition, every physician must adhere to the informed consent guidelines required by malpractice insurance companies.
Amendments were negotiated that would insert the requirements and guidelines of these regulatory bodies into Arizona’s statutes. That language has been rejected.
Myth: This bill maintains the “status quo” for the infertility community in Arizona. It will merely prohibit the use of eggs for “research” and “cloning.”
Truth: This bill prohibits anyone from “purchasing or offering to purchase” a human egg for anything but the “treatment of infertility.” This includes the use of eggs that fail to fertilize to be used to further new treatments for infertility and for training embryologists. What “treatment for infertility” entails is not defined, yet anything outside of that realm carries a criminal penalty and certain loss of license for the physician.
Can physicians freeze and thaw eggs for preservation? A common practice, yet still classified as “investigative” under ASRM guidelines. Can physicians screen for genetic defects? Can new specialists and embryologists be trained? The physicians in the infertility practices believe these practices will no longer be legal. Physicians will no longer be able to treat patients who need egg donation as a means to build their families in Arizona, driving these couples out of state to seek treatment.
Amendments allowing “clinical investigation for the furthering of the treatment of infertility” were negotiated. That language was subsequently rejected. There is no way to know how a judge, not a medical board, will interpret “the treatment of infertility.” Given the threat of criminal penalty and loss of license to practice, physicians will not provide these treatments to their patients.
Doctors will leave Arizona and so will patients. Arizona will lose millions of dollars in revenues in addition to labeling itself anti-family.
SB1307:
The Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Society of Arizona (REISA), an organization of infertility specialists, embryologists and professionals, oppose SB 1307. They are supported in their opposition by RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association.
The bill prohibits cloning and human/animal hybrids, which we have no problem with. However, as stated by Dr. Pomeroy, “the bill says you are liable if you ‘intentionally or knowingly’ engage in activity that causes the demise of embryos. Embryologists ‘know’ that some embryos will not survive freezing and thawing and so we would be culpable, even though it was not intentional. No embryologist would work under a condition of potential liability like this.” In doing this, NO medical procedure could be performed on ANY embryo—viable or non-viable, that results in “injury, death or destruction…” of the embryo.
Under the definition of nontheraputic research, the only permissible activities are Treatment of Infertility, In Vitro Fertilization and accompanying transfer. Any other procedure MUST be done solely to “preserve the life or health of the particular embryo.”
This bill carries a Class 6 Felony penalty. The testimony of Nik Nikas, attorney and proponent of the bill, was very clear that “we have no way of knowing how a federal or state judge would interpret the phrase “treatment of infertility.”
The medical community working in this field strongly believes that the definition of nontheraputic research would prohibit:
• Training of new infertility specialists and embryologists.
• Practices that allow embryologists to screen embryos for genetic disease. Some genetic conditions can actually be removed from an embryo prior to transfer.
• Practices such as Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis that select only healthy embryos from genetically challenged couples, avoiding miscarriage and health risks.
• Screening to select only the most viable embryos for transfer allowing doctors to transfer one or two embryos. This reduces the need for multiple embryos that lead to high-order multiples and premature birth.
With a class 6 felony and loss of license to practice, no physician in Arizona would dare take that chance. They would no longer be able to help Arizona couples have families. These unintended consequences will drive businesses out of Arizona, and force couples seeking this treatment to go elsewhere.
If this bill passes, doctors will leave Arizona and so will patients. Arizona will lose millions of dollars in revenues in addition to labeling itself anti-family.
To voice your opposition to these bills visit RESOLVE to send a letter to your Representative.
» Filed Under Infertility, Patient Advocacy, Womens Issues
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