New reproductive technologies, ethics and legislation in Brazil: A delayeddebate

This paper focuses on the debate about the utilization of new reproductive technologies in Brazil, and the paths taken in the Brazilian National Congr ess in an attempt to dram up legislation to regulate the clinical practice of human assisted reproduction. British documents, such as the Warnock Repo rt and Human Fertilization and Embriology Authority (HFEA) are used for tho rough reference. The analysis of the Law Projects in the National Congress, the Resolution by the Federal Medicine Council, Resolution 196/96 and docu ments by the Ministerio Publico (Public Prosecution Office), suppled the ba ses for the discussion. The principal question involved is the observation of different technical and moral prientations that influence the conduct of the issue in the legislative process. It is possible to observe that the m ain focus of the projects relates to the rights and interests of the childr en, to those possibly benefited technique and to embryo reduction. Very lit tle attention has been directed to the issues of sexual and reproductive ri ghts and to the health of the women submitted to the new reproductive techo logies.