Конституционный суд
10 апреля 2025
No. KT19-N4/2025
Facts
Two groups of members of the parliament have applied to the Constitutional Court to assess the provisions of the Law on Assisted Reproduction, according to which only persons who have entered marriage or registered partnership have the right to receive assisted reproduction services.
Complaint
According to the applicants, infertility is a widespread both in Lithuania and worldwide. Assisted reproduction is one of the methods of successful treatment of infertility based. A person's infertility and the desire to treat it do not depend on the form of family relationship chosen by the infertile person(s). According to the applicants, the right to assisted reproduction is directly linked to the protection of the family as a constitutional value. This right is exercised for the purpose of procreation, i.e. for the purpose of creating and developing family relations. The applicants argued that the family status of persons puts them at a disadvantage.
Court‘s ruling
The Constitutional Court noted that in regulating the conditions for the provision of health care services, both those financed by compulsory health insurance and those paid for by private sources of financing, the legislator is bound by the constitutional requirement to ensure that health care is accessible to all. This constitutional requirement implies that, when laying down the conditions for the provision of health care services, the law must provide for a framework under which, in the event of an established objective medical need, objective circumstances relating to the health of the person concerned, health care services are provided to persons in accordance with the constitutional principle of equal treatment of persons, which would be infringed if certain persons were discriminated against in the provision of health care services. One of the grounds for discrimination prohibited under Article 29 of the Constitution is the restriction of a person's rights based on family status.
The Court emphasised that the legal regulation creates conditions for situations where, in the case of an established objective medical need, objective circumstances related to the health of a person, assisted reproduction services will not be provided to persons solely based on their family status.
Accordingly, the Court held that the Assisted Reproduction Act, in so far as it restricts access to assisted reproduction services to persons who have not entered into marriage or partnership, is unconstitutional.