IS IT LEGITIMATE TO LIMIT THE PROCREATIVE RIGHT?

Abstract

International human rights law sets out the entitlements and freedoms of individuals to start a family which is considered to be a natural and fundamental group unit of society. Foundation of a family is usually related to the idea of creation and continuation of life that involves the procreative capacity of family members and is consolidated through the actual act of procreation. However, in the practice, it means that some individuals may face with procreation problems that are obstacles to the efficient realization of the procreative right. The law has a solution for over-coming the problem as it guarantees access to the assisted procreative facilities that have the aim to enable procreation. Thus, the procreation becomes possible with the involvement of the third party. It is especially noticeable in the case where the law allows the donation of the reproductive cells or childbearing for potential procreators (surrogacy). Those procreation novelties deprived the procreation of its private characteristics and made procreation public. The most importantly the law enabled that human body, with it related the act of childbearing and child itself become the subject of various agreements between adults. That leads to the question of whether the procreation right should be limited, as it makes possible that human being and parts of its body become the commodity. To answer that question it is needed to de-termine the scope of the procreation right itself, and view it in relation to the competing rights of all subjects in the procreation process. The analysis of the moral aspect of the procreative right is also important as its intrinsic value and its relation to other rights could offer an answer which right should prevail in the case when procreative right conflict with some other rights.