Criminal Law Study on Sperm Trading as a Part of Human Organ in Vitro Fertilization Process for Infertile Couple

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-024-4_33How to use a DOI?

Keywords

sperm trading; in vitro fertilization; criminal law

Abstract

Reproduction is a process of continuing the lineage. This process involves a couple where the ovum owned by the wife is fertilized by the sperm of the husband, thus forming a zygote. In reality, not all couples have the privilege to produce zygote, thus called infertile, so that there are several means to achieve the goal of having a baby. One way is to undergo the in vitro fertilization (IVF) process that is considered as a pregnancy without natural means. If the IVF still fails, there is a chance to obtain the donor sperm. This situation however raises some issues. First, the biological and legal status seems to contradict each other since intuitively, that baby is the biological child of the sperm donor whereas based on Indonesia Marriage Law Number 1 Year 1974 states that the baby is the legal child of the couple since it is born out of the couple who are legally married. Second, will sperm donor trading be considered as a human organ trading where, as a human, it is a common sense that according to the norm and law, it is considered a prohibited act? It is already well known that internationally the sperm donor trading has been legalized in some countries. But what is exactly the long-term effect that happens when such a thing is legalized? The ambiguity emerging from these issues has to be explained descriptively to clarify the matters in the form of clear legal and biological definition. Therefore, research is performed using a normative juridical method. Using primary law resources like Indonesian laws, books, journals, and the previous research results, the validated qualitative summary can be drawn accurately without any need of quantitative data. The case studies regarding the long-term effects of the legalized sperm donor trading indicates that it is prone to causing an event where the biological father of the child born will leave untracked and worse, the trading will contribute to the significant increase of inbred fertilization. One case in America involves a man who tried to search for his true biological father. He found out that his biological father had donated more than 500 times of his sperm. This raised fear on the man as he is always haunted with the idea that he might date and even marry his sister of the same blood. To avoid the inbred fertilization caused by the sperm donor trading, there is a firm prohibition of human organs trading according to Indonesian Health Law Number 36 Year 2009 Article 192. The same law on Article 127 Paragraph 1 regulates the rules of unnatural means of giving birth, IVF is included in this category. It clearly states that any means of giving birth is considered unlawful if it uses sperm donors.

Copyright

© 2023 The Author(s)

Open Access

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Trini Handayani
AU  - Henny Nuraeny
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/04/19
TI  - Criminal Law Study on Sperm Trading as a Part of Human Organ in Vitro Fertilization Process for Infertile Couple
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference On Law, Economics, and Health (ICLEH 2022)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 311
EP  - 320
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-024-4_33
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-024-4_33
ID  - Handayani2023
ER  -