Act on Artificial Fertilisation and use of Human Gametes and Embryos for Stem-Cell Research

1996 no. 55, 29 May

NB. all references on this page link to original Icelandic versions on Alþingi's website

Revised English translation 18.8.2009
by Anna Yates, certified translator

[Act on Artificial Fertilisation and use of Human Gametes and Embryos for Stem-Cell Research] ¹⁾

1996 no. 55, 29 May

¹⁾Act 27/2008, art. 9

Took effect 1 June 1996. Amended by Act 65/2006 (took effect 27 June 2006), Act 27/2008(took effect 19 April 2008) and Act 54/2008 (took effect 7 June 2008).

Definitions

Art. 1

Artificial fertilisation:

Conception resulting from artificial insemination or in vitro fertilisation.
Artificial insemination: Process whereby sperm are placed in or near the reproductive organs of a woman, other than by sexual intercourse.
In vitro fertilisation: Process whereby an ovum, which has been removed from a woman's body, is fertilised by sperm outside the body.
Gametes: Ova and sperm.
Embryo: Fertilised ovum at all stages of development, from fertilisation [with a sperm]¹⁾ until the foetal stage.
Donor: Individual who provides another with gametes.
Surrogacy: Artificial fertilisation performed on a woman who intends to carry a child for another woman, and has agreed before the pregnancy to give up the child immediately after the birth.
[Excess embryo: Embryo created by in vitro fertilisation for reproductive purposes but not used for that purpose.
Nuclear transfer: Procedure whereby the nucleus is removed from a woman’s ovum and replaced by the nucleus of a somatic cell.]¹⁾
¹⁾Act 27/2008, art. 1

General provisions

Art. 2

Artificial fertilisation may only be carried out at a health institution which has obtained a licence from the Minister for that purpose and under the supervision of specialists in gynaecology and obstetrics. [The Minister may impose special conditions upon such licences, inter alia with respect to the competence and knowledge of a laboratory’s staff, monitoring by health authorities, provision of information and facilities.]¹⁾
[The use of excess embryos for stem-cell research under art. 12 and nuclear transfer under art. 13 are permitted only at research laboratories which have been granted the appropriate licence by the Minister. Conditions for the granting of such a licence are: compliance with the provisions of this Act, and of regulations which may be issued on the basis of the Act; that the laboratory be located in Iceland; and that it have satisfactory facilities for storage of embryos. The Minister may impose special conditions upon such a licence, inter alia with respect to the competence and knowledge of a laboratory’s staff, monitoring by health authorities, provision of information and facilities. Before the Minister makes a decision upon the granting of a licence under this provision, he/she shall elicit the views of the Medical Director of Health. Should the licensee violate the provisions of this Act or rules issued on the basis of the Act, or the conditions of the licence, the Minister may, as appropriate, after having issued a reprimand, revoke the licence temporarily pending rectification, or permanently.]¹⁾
A health institution granted a licence under para. 1 must offer [those]²⁾ who apply for artificial fertilisation, and prospective donors, professional counselling by specialists, such as social workers or psychologists.
¹⁾Act 27/2008, art. 2, ²⁾Act 54/2008, art. 1.

Art. 3

[Artificial fertilisation may only be carried out if:

the written and witnessed consent of the woman has been given. If the woman is married, cohabiting, or in a civil partnership, the witnessed written consent of the other party must also have been given,
the child to be conceived by the procedure may be deemed to be ensured good conditions in which to grow up,
the woman is of natural child-bearing age, and has the physical capability and sufficiently good health to cope with the strain of the treatment, pregnancy and birth of the child. A factor to be taken into account is that the pregnancy and birth not be expected to entail damaging consequences for mother or child, on the basis of normal medical and obstetric standards,
the mental health and social circumstances of the couple or woman are good.

Before artificial fertilisation is carried out, and consent is given under item a para. 1, information shall be provided on the treatment and its potential medical, social and legal implications.
Artificial fertilisation may only be performed if the conditions of para. 1 are met. A physician assesses whether the conditions are met, before deciding whether the artificial fertilisation will take place. A refusal of artificial fertilisation by a physician may be appealed to the Medical Director of Health. The decision of the Medical Director of Health may be appealed to the Ministry. The procedure of appeals to the Medical Director of Health and the Ministry is as provided by the Public Administration Act.
The Minister issues more detailed rules on the implementation of this provision, inter alia on the authority or obligation to seek the opinion of a social worker or other professional or, as appropriate, a child welfare committee, on the social circumstances of the couple or woman.]¹⁾
¹⁾Act 54/2008, art. 2.

Art. 4

The physician providing treatment shall choose a suitable donor.
Should a donor request anonymity, health workers must ensure that this wish be respected. In such cases information may not be provided to the donor on the couple receiving donor gametes, nor about the child, nor may the couple or the child receive information on the donor.
Should the donor not request anonymity, the institution shall keep information on the donor in a special file. Should the donation of gametes result in the birth of a child, data on the child and on the couple who received the donated gametes shall be kept in the same file.
A child conceived as a result of a donation of gametes, where the donor did not request anonymity, may at the age of 18 request access to the records under para. 3, in order to acquire information on the name of the donor. Should a child receive information on the gamete donor from the institution, the institution shall, as soon as possible, inform the donor that the information has been provided.

[Artificial fertilisation treatment]¹⁾
¹⁾Act 54/2008, art. 3.

Art. 5

[Artificial fertilisation may be carried out by artificial insemination or by in vitro fertilisation.
Artificial fertilisation with donor gametes may only be carried out if fertility is impaired, or in the case of a serious hereditary disease, or if other medical reasons indicate use of donor gametes. In the case of a single woman or a woman in a civil partnership or cohabiting with another woman, however, the use of donor sperm is always permitted.
Donation of embryos is prohibited.
Surrogacy is prohibited.]¹⁾
¹⁾Act 54/2008, art. 3.
...¹⁾
¹⁾Act 54/2008, art. 4.

Art. 6 ...¹⁾

¹⁾Act 54/2008, art. 4.

Storage of gametes and embryos

Art. 7

Storage of gametes and embryos is only permitted at a health institution licensed by the Minister to carry out artificial fertilisation, cp. art. 2.

Art. 8

Gametes may only be stored for the purpose of:

the party’s/parties’ own use at a later time,
donation for research purposes, or
donation of gametes for use in artificial fertilisation.

The person who provides gametes shall give written consent for their storage in accord with the purpose of storage, after having been provided with information on the effect of storage on the gametes, and on the general rules applying to storage of gametes in this Act and in rules issued on the basis of the Act.

Art. 9

Embryos may be stored for the purpose of transplanting them into the woman who provided the ova, or the wife of, or woman cohabiting with, the man who provided the sperm. The storage of embryos for other purposes is prohibited.
[Storage of embryos is subject to the condition that the man and the woman providing the gametes, or women in a civil partnership or cohabiting, [or single woman,]¹⁾ give(s) written consent for storage in keeping with the stated purpose, having previously been provided with information on how the storage affects the embryos and on the general conditions regarding the storage of gametes and embryos laid down in this Act and rules based on the Act.]²⁾
Embryos may only be used in accord with the consent of those providing the gametes.
¹⁾Act 54/2008, art. 5. ²⁾Act 65/2006, art. 20.

Art. 10

The Minister shall issue rules on how long gametes and embryos may be stored, in accord with the best medical knowledge at the time.
At the end of the maximum storage period, unused gametes and embryos shall be destroyed.
Should the person who provided gametes die before the expiry of the maximum storage period, unused gametes shall be destroyed, unless the purpose of the storage was to donate gametes for use in artificial fertilisation.
[Should the man and woman who provided the gametes separate, or cease to cohabit, or should a woman in a civil partnership or cohabiting terminate that relationship, before the expiry of the maximum storage period for embryos, the embryos shall be destroyed. The same applies if one of the parties dies, unless the gametes were donated for use in artificial fertilisation.]¹⁾
[Notwithstanding the provisions of paras. 2 to 4, it is permissible, after the expiry of the maximum storage period, or after the embryos must be destroyed under para. 3 or 4, to pass the embryos to a body which has been granted permission to use embryos in stem-cell research, provided that the informed consent of both gamete donors has been given. In provision of embryos under this provision, information on their origin shall be encrypted, and the code shall be kept by the responsible party for the licensee. If the interests of the gamete donors, or exigent research interests, so require, the information on the origins of the embryo may be decoded, by permission of the Bioethics Committee. In such decoding it shall be ensured that access to the information be restricted to members of the licensee’s staff for whom access is necessary.
A gamete donor may at any time revoke his/her consent under para. 5, in which case the responsible party of the licensee shall ensure that gametes of the relevant donor are not used in research, and are destroyed without undue delay.
The licensee is absolutely prohibited from passing on to other parties embryos which have been provided to it.
A fee may be charged to the licensee for provision of excess embryos under para. 5, reflecting the costs of the arrangements. All other fees are prohibited.]²⁾
¹⁾Act 65/2006, art. 21, ²⁾Act 27/2008, art. 3.

[Research on embryos in connection with in vitro fertilisation treatment]¹⁾
¹⁾Act 27/2008, art. 4.

Art. 11

[A health institution which has been granted a licence under para. 1 art. 2 may, with the informed consent of the gamete donors, perform research, experiments and procedures on embryos which have been created by in vitrotreatment, and are a part of that, or have been created in order to diagnose hereditary diseases in the embryos themselves. The same applies to research which aims to advance treatment for infertility, or to enhance understanding of the causes of congenital diseases and miscarriages.]¹⁾
¹⁾Act 27/2008, art. 4.

[Use of excess embryos for stem-cell research]¹⁾
¹⁾Act 27/2008, art. 5.

Art. 12

[By permission of the Bioethics Committee, those who have been granted licences under para. 2 art. 2 may use excess embryos provided to them under para. 5 art. 10 to create stem-cell lines which may be useful to gain biological and medical knowledge, or to enhance health and cure disease. The Bioethics Committee judges whether the above-mentioned conditions and other mandated conditions for scientific research are met.]¹⁾
¹⁾Act 27/2008, art. 5.

[Art. 13

Licensees under para. 2 art. 2 may, with the consent of the Bioethics Committee, the ovum donor and the person who is the source of genetic material, perform nuclear transfer for the purpose of creating a stem-cell line which may be used for medical purposes, or to gain biological and medical knowledge, if it is deemed impossible to achieve the same results or acquire the same knowledge by use of stem-cell lines made using excess embryos or by other means. The Bioethics Committee judges whether the above-mentioned conditions and other mandated conditions for scientific research are met. An ovum on which nuclear transfer has been carried out may not be grown for more than 14 days or once the primitive streak has appeared. It is prohibited at all stages to implant in a woman’s uterus an ovum on which nuclear transfer has been performed.]¹⁾
¹⁾Act 27/2008, art. 6.

[Art. 14

It is prohibited to:

cultivate or produce embryos solely for research purposes,
cultivate embryos for more than 14 days outside the body or once the primitive streak has appeared,
transplant human embryos into animals,
perform nuclear transfer for reproductive purposes (cloning).]¹⁾

¹⁾Act 27/2008, art. 6.

Final provisions

[Art. 15]¹⁾

The Minister issues more detailed rules²⁾ on the implementation of this Act. These shall cover, inter alia:
[a. general conditions for granting of licences under art. 2],³⁾
[b.]³⁾ preparation of prospective parents for the treatment, including their access to counselling,
[c.]³⁾ use of donor gametes, including use of donor gametes within the family,
[d.]³⁾ storage period of embryos,
[e. provision of embryos under para. 5 art. 10, arrangements for acquiring informed consent of gamete donors, and the content of such informed consent, maximum storage period of embryos and of ova on which nuclear transfer has been performed by a research body, encryption of information on the origins of embryos, and when such information may be decoded],³⁾
[f.]³⁾ [research on embryos and use of excess embryos to create stem-cell lines under arts. 11 and 12],³⁾
[g. nuclear transfer under art. 13],³⁾
[h. maximum number of embryos that it shall normally be permissible to implant in artificial fertilisation procedures,
i. maximum age of gamete donors.]⁴⁾
¹⁾Act 27/2008, art. 6, ²⁾Regs. 144/2009, ³⁾Act 27/2008, art. 7, ⁴⁾Act 54/2008, art. 6.

[Art. 16

The Medical Director of Health monitors that artificial fertilisation treatments carried out in Iceland are consistent with the provisions of this Act and regulations issued on the basis of the Act. Monitoring by the Medical Director of Health, and his/her monitoring sanctions, are as provided in the Medical Director of Health Act.]¹⁾
¹⁾Act 54/2008, art. 7.

[Art. 17]¹⁾

Violation of the provisions of this Act or of rules based on it entails fines or imprisonment of up to three months.
[A violation against the provisions of art. 13 or item d art. 14 entails fines or imprisonment for up to one year.]²⁾
Complicity in such a violation shall entail the same penalties, unless more severe penalties apply under other legislation.
¹⁾Act 54/2008, art. 7, ²⁾Act 27/2008, art. 8.

[Art. 18]¹⁾

This Act takes effect on 1 June 1996, and at that time rules shall have been formulated as provided in art. 13 on the practice of artificial fertilisation, issued by the Minister.
¹⁾Act 54/2008, art. 7.

Act on Artificial Fertilisation and use of Human Gametes and Embryos for Stem-Cell Research, no. 55 was issued on May 29, 1996.
Origianl text on Alþingi's website with ammendments (in Icelandic)

Act on Artificial Fertilisation and use of Human Gametes and Embryos for Stem-Cell Research

1996 no. 55, 29 May