Federal Act
on Medically Assisted Reproduction
(Reproductive Medicine Act, RMA)

¹ This Act spe­cifies the con­di­tions un­der which the tech­niques of med­ic­ally as­sisted re­pro­duc­tion may be used in hu­mans.

² It pro­tects hu­man dig­nity, per­son­al­ity and the fam­ily and pro­hib­its mis­uses of bi­o­tech­no­logy and gene tech­no­logy.

³ It provides for the es­tab­lish­ment of a na­tion­al eth­ics com­mis­sion.

In this Act:

a.

tech­niques of med­ic­ally as­sisted re­pro­duc­tion (as­sisted re­pro­duct­ive tech­niques)means meth­ods of es­tab­lish­ing a preg­nancy without sexu­al in­ter­course – in par­tic­u­lar, in­sem­in­a­tion, in vitro fer­til­isa­tion with em­bryo trans­fer and gam­ete trans­fer;

b.

in­sem­in­a­tionmeans the in­tro­duc­tion, by means of in­stru­ments, of sperm cells in­to the fe­male re­pro­duct­ive or­gans;

c.

in vitro fer­til­isa­tionmeans the bring­ing to­geth­er of an ovum and sperm cells out­side the wo­man’s body;

d.

gam­ete trans­fer means the in­tro­duc­tion, by means of in­stru­ments, of sperm cells and ova in­to the uter­us or a Fal­lopi­an tube;

e.

re­pro­duct­ive cells (gam­etes)means sperm cells and ova;

f.

germline cellsmeans re­pro­duct­ive cells (in­clud­ing their pre­curs­or cells), im­preg­nated ova and em­bryon­ic cells whose ge­net­ic ma­ter­i­al can be passed on to off­spring;

g.

im­preg­na­tionmeans caus­ing a sperm cell to pen­et­rate in­to the cyto­plasm of an ovum, in par­tic­u­lar by in­sem­in­a­tion, gam­ete trans­fer or in vitro fer­til­isa­tion;

h.

im­preg­nated ovum means the fer­til­ised ovum be­fore pro­nuc­lear fu­sion;

i.

em­bryo means the de­vel­op­ing off­spring from the time of pro­nuc­lear fu­sion un­til the end of or­gano­gen­es­is;

j.

foetus means the de­vel­op­ing off­spring from the end of or­gano­gen­es­is un­til birth;

k.

sur­rog­ate moth­er means a wo­man who is pre­pared to be­come preg­nant by means of an as­sisted re­pro­duct­ive tech­nique, to carry the foetus to term and to sur­render the child per­man­ently to third parties after de­liv­ery;

l.

clon­ingmeans the ar­ti­fi­cial pro­duc­tion of ge­net­ic­ally identic­al or­gan­isms;

m.

chi­mera form­a­tion means the fu­sion of to­ti­po­tent cells from two or more ge­net­ic­ally dif­fer­ent em­bry­os. Em­bryon­ic cells are to­ti­po­tent if they are cap­able of de­vel­op­ing in­to any type of spe­cial­ised cell;

n.

hy­brid form­a­tion means caus­ing a non-hu­man sperm cell to pen­et­rate in­to a hu­man ovum, or a hu­man sperm cell in­to a non-hu­man ovum.

¹ As­sisted re­pro­duct­ive tech­niques may be used only if the well-be­ing of the child is en­sured.

² They may only be used in couples:

a.

where a basis for a par­ent-child re­la­tion­ship ex­ists in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 252–263 of the Swiss Civil Code⁴ (CC); and

b.⁵

who, on the basis of their age and per­son­al cir­cum­stances, are likely to be able to care for and bring up the child un­til it reaches the age of ma­jor­ity.

³ Only mar­ried couples may use donated sperm cells.

⁴ Re­pro­duct­ive cells or im­preg­nated ova may not be used after the death of the per­son from whom they were ob­tained. The fore­go­ing does not ap­ply to sperm cells from sperm donors.⁶

⁵ Im­preg­nated ova and em­bry­os in vitro may no longer be used fol­low­ing the death of any one oft he couple con­cerned.⁷

Ovum and em­bryo dona­tion and sur­rog­ate moth­er­hood are pro­hib­ited.

As­sisted re­pro­duct­ive tech­niques may be used only if:

a.

the aim is to en­able a couple to over­come in­fer­til­ity and oth­er treat­ment meth­ods have failed or of­fer no pro­spect of suc­cess; or

b.

there is no oth­er way of avoid­ing the risk of trans­mit­ting a ser­i­ous dis­ease to the off­spring.

¹ The ana­lys­is of the ge­net­ic ma­ter­i­al of re­pro­duct­ive cells and their se­lec­tion to in­flu­ence the sex or oth­er char­ac­ter­ist­ics of the child are only per­mit­ted in or­der to identi­fy chro­mo­somal prop­er­ties that may in­hib­it the de­vel­op­ment ca­pa­city of the em­bryo to be cre­ated, or if there is no oth­er way of avoid­ing the risk of trans­mit­ting a pre­dis­pos­i­tion for a ser­i­ous dis­ease. Art­icle 22 para­graph 4 is re­served.

² The ana­lys­is of the ge­net­ic ma­ter­i­al of em­bry­os in vitro and their se­lec­tion ac­cord­ing to sex or ac­cord­ing to oth­er char­ac­ter­ist­ics are only per­mit­ted if:

a.

there is no oth­er way of avoid­ing the risk of an em­bryo with a hered­it­ary pre­dis­pos­i­tion for a ser­i­ous dis­ease from im­plant­ing in the uter­us;

b.

it is prob­able that the ser­i­ous dis­ease will oc­cur be­fore the age of 50;

c.

no ef­fect­ive or ex­pedi­ent ther­apy is avail­able for com­bat­ing the ser­i­ous dis­ease; and

d.

the couple have in­formed the phys­i­cian in writ­ing that they are not pre­pared to ac­cept the risk in terms of let­ter a.

³ They are also per­mit­ted in or­der to identi­fy chro­mo­somal prop­er­ties that may in­hib­it the de­vel­op­ment ca­pa­city of the em­bryo.

¹ Re­pro­duct­ive tech­niques may only be used if the couple con­cerned have giv­en their writ­ten con­sent after be­ing giv­en suf­fi­cient in­form­a­tion and coun­selling.. After three un­suc­cess­ful treat­ment cycles, re­newed con­sent and a fur­ther peri­od for re­flec­tion are re­quired.

² The couple’s writ­ten con­sent is also re­quired for the re­act­iv­a­tion of pre­served em­bry­os and im­preg­nated ova.

³ If an as­sisted re­pro­duct­ive tech­nique in­volves an in­creased risk of mul­tiple preg­nancy, the pro­ced­ure may be car­ried out only if the couple are pre­pared to ac­cept a mul­tiple birth.

¹ Be­fore an as­sisted re­pro­duct­ive tech­nique is used, the phys­i­cian must ad­equately in­form the couple about:¹¹

a.

the vari­ous causes of in­fer­til­ity;

b.

the med­ic­al pro­ced­ure, in­clud­ing the pro­spects of suc­cess and the risks in­volved;

c.

the risk of a mul­tiple preg­nancy;

d.

pos­sible psy­cho­lo­gic­al and phys­ic­al stresses; and

e.

the leg­al and fin­an­cial as­pects.

² In the coun­selling ses­sion, ap­pro­pri­ate ref­er­ence should also be made to al­tern­at­ive ways of liv­ing and oth­er fam­ily-build­ing op­tions.

³ There must be an ap­pro­pri­ate peri­od for re­flec­tion, gen­er­ally last­ing four weeks, between the coun­selling ses­sion and treat­ment. It must be poin­ted out that the couple may also seek in­de­pend­ent ad­vice.

⁴ Psy­cho­lo­gic­al sup­port must be offered be­fore, dur­ing and after treat­ment.

¹ Be­fore re­pro­duct­ive tech­niques with the ana­lys­is of the ge­net­ic ma­ter­i­al of re­pro­duct­ive cells or em­bry­os in vitro or with the se­lec­tion of donor sperm cells to pre­vent the trans­mis­sion of a ser­i­ous dis­ease are car­ried out, the phys­i­cian shall, in ad­di­tion to the pro­vi­sion of in­form­a­tion and coun­selling in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 6, en­sure that the couple con­cerned re­ceive non-dir­ect­ive, ex­pert ge­net­ic coun­selling. In this con­nec­tion, the couple must re­ceive suf­fi­cient in­form­a­tion on:

a.

the fre­quency, sig­ni­fic­ance and prob­ab­il­ity of con­tract­ing the dis­ease and its po­ten­tial symp­toms;

b.

pro­phy­lact­ic and thera­peut­ic meas­ures that may be taken against the dis­ease;

c.

ways of or­gan­ising the life of a child that suf­fers from the dis­ease;

d.

the in­form­at­ive value of and risk of er­ror in the ana­lys­is of the ge­net­ic ma­ter­i­al;

e.

risks that re­pro­duct­ive tech­niques carry for off­spring;

f.¹³

as­so­ci­ations for par­ents of chil­dren with dis­ab­il­it­ies, self-help groups and in­form­a­tion and coun­selling centres in terms of Art­icle 24 of the Fed­er­al Act of 15 June 2018¹⁴ on Hu­man Ge­net­ic Test­ing (HGTA).

² Coun­selling may only con­cern the in­di­vidu­al and fam­ily situ­ation of the couple con­cerned and not the in­terests of so­ci­ety as a whole.

³ The phys­i­cian car­ries out the se­lec­tion of one or more em­bry­os for trans­fer to the uter­us fol­low­ing a fur­ther coun­selling ses­sion.

⁴ The phys­i­cian must keep re­cords of the coun­selling ses­sions.

The fol­low­ing pro­vi­sions of the HGTA¹⁶ ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis to as­sisted re­pro­duct­ive tech­niques with the ana­lys­is of the ge­net­ic ma­ter­i­al of re­pro­duct­ive cells or em­bry­os in vitro:

a.

with re­gard to the right to in­form­a­tion and the right not to know ge­net­ic data: Art­icles 7 and 8 HGTA;

b.

with re­gard to avoid­ing an ex­cess of in­form­a­tion when con­duct­ing ana­lyses: Art­icle 9 HGTA;

c.

with re­gard to pro­tect­ing samples and ge­net­ic data, the dur­a­tion of their re­ten­tion and their use for a dif­fer­ent pur­pose: Art­icles 10–12 HGTA;

d.

with re­gard to hand­ling ge­net­ic data in re­la­tion to em­ploy­ment and in­sur­ance and in li­ab­il­ity cases: Art­icles 39 let­ter b, 43 para­graph 3 and 45 HGTA.

¹ A can­ton­al li­cence is re­quired by any per­son who:

a.

uses as­sisted re­pro­duct­ive tech­niques;

b.

re­ceives re­pro­duct­ive cells, im­preg­nated ova or em­bry­os in vitro for pre­ser­va­tion or ar­ranges the sup­ply of donated sperm cells without per­son­ally us­ing as­sisted re­pro­duct­ive tech­niques.

² Labor­at­or­ies that con­duct ana­lyses of ge­net­ic ma­ter­i­al in con­nec­tion with re­pro­duct­ive tech­niques in terms of Art­icle 5a re­quire a li­cence in terms of Art­icle 28 para­graph 1 HGTA¹⁹.²⁰

³ No li­cence is re­quired for in­sem­in­a­tion us­ing a part­ner’s sperm cells.

¹ A li­cence in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 8 para­graph 1 let­ter a shall only be gran­ted to phys­i­cians.²¹

² They must:

a.

have the ne­ces­sary train­ing and ex­per­i­ence in the meth­ods of med­ic­ally as­sisted re­pro­duc­tion;

b.

en­sure that such activ­it­ies are car­ried out with due care and in com­pli­ance with the law;

c.

to­geth­er with staff, en­sure that the per­sons to be treated re­ceive com­pre­hens­ive coun­selling and sup­port with re­gard to the med­ic­al, re­pro­duct­ive bio­lo­gic­al and so­cio-psy­cho­lo­gic­al as­pects of the pro­ced­ure;

d.

have the ne­ces­sary labor­at­ory equip­ment;

e.²²

en­sure that the re­pro­duct­ive cells, im­preg­nated ova and em­bry­os in vitro are pre­served ac­cord­ing to the state of the art in sci­ence and prac­tice.

³ If the ge­net­ic ma­ter­i­al from re­pro­duct­ive cells or em­bry­os in vitro is ana­lysed as part of the re­pro­duct­ive tech­nique, they must also:

a.

demon­strate they have suf­fi­cient know­ledge of med­ic­al ge­net­ics; and

b.

guar­an­tee that the pro­ced­ure and co­oper­a­tion with the labor­at­or­ies con­cerned ac­cords with the state of the art in sci­ence and prac­tice.²³

¹ A li­cence in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 8 para­graph 1 let­ter b shall only be gran­ted to phys­i­cians.²⁵

² They must:

a.

en­sure that such activ­it­ies are car­ried out with due care and in com­pli­ance with the law;

b.

to­geth­er with staff, en­sure that sperm donors are care­fully se­lec­ted; and

c.²⁶

en­sure that re­pro­duct­ive cells, im­preg­nated ova and em­bry­os in vitro are pre­served ac­cord­ing to the state of sci­ence and prac­tice.

¹ Per­sons hold­ing a li­cence in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 8 para­graph 1 must sub­mit an an­nu­al re­port on their activ­it­ies to the can­ton­al li­cens­ing au­thor­ity.²⁷

² The re­port must provide in­form­a­tion on:

a.

the num­ber and type of treat­ments;

b.

the type of in­dic­a­tions;

c.

the use of donated sperm cells;

d.

the num­ber of preg­nan­cies and their out­come;

e.²⁸

the pre­ser­va­tion and use of re­pro­duct­ive cells, im­preg­nated ova and em­bry­os in vitro;

f.

the num­ber of sur­plus em­bry­os.

³ It must not con­tain any in­form­a­tion re­veal­ing the iden­tity of spe­cif­ic people.

⁴ The can­ton­al li­cens­ing au­thor­ity shall trans­mit the data to the Fed­er­al Stat­ist­ic­al Of­fice for eval­u­ation and pub­lic­a­tion.²⁹

¹ The li­cens­ing au­thor­ity shall veri­fy wheth­er:

a.

the re­quire­ments for grant­ing a li­cence have been met;

b.

the ob­lig­a­tions and any con­di­tions have been ful­filled

² It shall carry out in­spec­tions and may enter prop­er­ties, busi­ness premises and rooms. The li­cence hold­er must provide the li­cens­ing au­thor­ity with the re­quired in­form­a­tion and doc­u­ments and any oth­er sup­port on re­quest and free of charge.

³ It may take any meas­ures that are re­quired to en­force this Act. In par­tic­u­lar, in the case of ser­i­ous in­fringe­ments of this Act, it may pro­hib­it the use of rooms or fa­cil­it­ies, close busi­ness premises and sus­pend or re­voke li­cences.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may del­eg­ate en­force­ment tasks, and in par­tic­u­lar in­spec­tion tasks, to pub­lic or private or­gan­isa­tions and per­sons. It shall en­sure that pay­ment is made for the del­eg­ated tasks.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall en­act the im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions con­cern­ing the grant­ing and with­draw­al of li­cences, and re­port­ing and su­per­vi­sion.

¹ The Fed­er­al Of­fice of Pub­lic Health (FOPH) shall en­sure that the im­pact of the pro­vi­sions of this Act re­lat­ing to the ana­lys­is of the ge­net­ic ma­ter­i­al of em­bry­os in vitro and their se­lec­tion is eval­u­ated.

² The eval­u­ation shall re­late in par­tic­u­lar to:

a.

the com­pat­ib­il­ity of the in­dic­a­tions re­por­ted in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 11 para­graph 2 let­ter b in re­spect of re­pro­duct­ive tech­niques with ana­lys­is of the ge­net­ic ma­ter­i­al of em­bry­os in or­der to pre­vent trans­mit­ting the pre­dis­pos­i­tion for a ser­i­ous dis­ease on the one hand with the au­thor­isa­tion re­quire­ments in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 5a para­graph 2 on the oth­er;

b.

the sur­vey of the num­ber of couples and the pro­ced­ures car­ried out as well as the res­ults;

c.

the pro­ced­ures re­lat­ing to en­force­ment and su­per­vi­sion;

d.

the im­pacts on so­ci­ety.

³ The hold­ers of a li­cence in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 8 para­graph 1 must on re­quest provide the FOPH and the per­son ap­poin­ted to con­duct the eval­u­ation with the data re­quired for the eval­u­ation in an­onymised form.

⁴ The Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Home Af­fairs shall provide the Fed­er­al Coun­cil with a re­port on con­clu­sion of the eval­u­ation and make pro­pos­als for fur­ther ac­tion.

¹ Re­pro­duct­ive cells may be pre­served only with the writ­ten con­sent of the per­son from whom they were ob­tained, and for a max­im­um of five years. At the re­quest of this per­son, the pre­ser­va­tion peri­od shall be ex­ten­ded by a max­im­um of five years.³³

² A longer pre­ser­va­tion peri­od may be agreed with per­sons who have their re­pro­duct­ive cells pre­served with a view to pro­du­cing their own off­spring at a later date be­cause med­ic­al treat­ment they un­der­go or an activ­ity they carry out could lead to in­fer­til­ity or dam­age to their ge­net­ic ma­ter­i­al.

³ The per­son from whom the re­pro­duct­ive cells are ob­tained may, at any time, in writ­ing, re­voke con­sent to their pre­ser­va­tion and use.

⁴ If con­sent is re­voked or the pre­ser­va­tion peri­od ex­pires, then the re­pro­duct­ive cells are to be des­troyed im­me­di­ately.

¹ Im­preg­nated ova and em­bry­os in vitro may only be pre­served if:³⁵

a.³⁶

the couple con­cerned give their writ­ten con­sent; and

b.

pre­ser­va­tion is in­ten­ded to per­mit sub­sequent es­tab­lish­ment of a preg­nancy.

² The pre­ser­va­tion peri­od is lim­ited to five years. At the re­quest of the couple con­cerned, the pre­ser­va­tion peri­od shall be ex­ten­ded by a max­im­um of five years.³⁷

³ Either part­ner may re­voke his or her con­sent at any time in writ­ing.³⁸

⁴ If con­sent is re­voked and the pre­ser­va­tion peri­od ex­pires, then the im­preg­nated ova and the em­bry­os in vitro shall be be des­troyed im­me­di­ately. The pro­vi­sions of the Stem Cell Re­search Act of 19 Decem­ber 2003³⁹ are re­served.⁴⁰

⁵ ...⁴¹

¹ The num­ber of im­preg­nated ova de­veloped in­to em­bry­os out­side the wo­man’s body with­in one treat­ment cycle must not be great­er than is re­quired for med­ic­ally as­sisted re­pro­duc­tion or for the ana­lys­is of the ge­net­ic ma­ter­i­al of the em­bry­os; the max­im­um num­ber shall be twelve.⁴²

² The em­bryo may only be de­veloped out­side the wo­man’s body to the ex­tent that is es­sen­tial in or­der to per­mit im­plant­a­tion in the uter­us.

³ ...⁴³

¹ Donated sperm cells may only be used in le­git­im­ate as­sisted re­pro­duct­ive tech­niques and for pur­poses to which the donor has giv­en his writ­ten con­sent.

² Be­fore donat­ing sperm, the donor must be in­formed in writ­ing about the leg­al situ­ation, and in par­tic­u­lar the right of the child to ob­tain in­form­a­tion on the donor’s re­cords (Art. 27).

¹ Donors must be care­fully se­lec­ted ac­cord­ing to med­ic­al cri­ter­ia; in par­tic­u­lar, health risks for the re­cip­i­ent of the donated sperm cells must be ex­cluded as far as pos­sible. Oth­er se­lec­tion cri­ter­ia are pro­hib­ited.

² The donor may provide his sperm cells to only one centre; he must be ex­pressly in­formed of this re­stric­tion pri­or to dona­tion.

¹ Donated sperm cells may only be sup­plied to per­sons who have a li­cence to use as­sisted re­pro­duct­ive tech­niques; the data spe­cified in Art­icle 24 para­graph 2 is also to be provided.

² Any per­son who re­ceives donated sperm cells must en­sure com­pli­ance with Art­icle 22 para­graph 2.

No pay­ment shall be made for sperm dona­tion as such.

¹ Sperm cells from dif­fer­ent donors must not be used with­in one cycle.

² Sperm cells from one donor may be used to pro­duce a max­im­um of eight chil­dren.

³ When an as­sisted re­pro­duct­ive tech­nique is used, the re­la­tion­ship between the per­sons from whom the re­pro­duct­ive cells are ob­tained must not con­sti­tute an im­ped­i­ment to mar­riage in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 95 CC⁴⁴.

⁴ When donated sperm cells are se­lec­ted, only the donor’s blood group and sim­il­ar­ity in phys­ic­al ap­pear­ance to the man with whom fi­li­ation is to be es­tab­lished shall be taken in­to ac­count.

¹ If a child is con­ceived through sperm dona­tion in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions of this Act, neither the child nor the hus­band or wife of the moth­er can con­test fi­li­ation with the hus­band or wife of the moth­er.⁴⁵

² If a child has been con­ceived through sperm dona­tion, a pa­tern­ity ac­tion against the sperm donor (Art. 261 ff. CC) is not per­mit­ted; however, such an ac­tion is per­miss­ible if the donor know­ingly donated sperm at the place of a per­son who was not li­censed to use as­sisted re­pro­duct­ive tech­niques or to pre­serve and sup­ply donated sperm cells.

¹ Any per­son who re­ceives or uses donated sperm cells must doc­u­ment the dona­tion in a re­li­able man­ner.

² In par­tic­u­lar, the fol­low­ing data about the donor is to be re­cor­ded:

a.

fam­ily name and first name, date and place of birth, place of res­id­ence, place of ori­gin in Switzer­land or na­tion­al­ity, oc­cu­pa­tion and edu­ca­tion;

b.

date of the sperm dona­tion;

c.

res­ults of the med­ic­al ex­am­in­a­tion;

d.

in­form­a­tion about phys­ic­al ap­pear­ance.

³ The fol­low­ing data con­cern­ing the wo­man for whom the donated sperm cells are used and her hus­band or wife shall be re­cor­ded:⁴⁶

a.

fam­ily name and first name, date and place of birth, place of res­id­ence, place of ori­gin in Switzer­land or na­tion­al­ity;

b.

date on which the sperm cells are used.

¹ Im­me­di­ately after the birth of the child, the phys­i­cian who car­ried out the re­pro­duct­ive pro­ced­ure must trans­mit the data spe­cified in Art­icle 24 to the Fed­er­al Civil Status Of­fice (Fed­er­al Of­fice).

² If the phys­i­cian has not been in­formed of a birth, then he or she must trans­mit the data im­me­di­ately after the cal­cu­lated date of birth, un­less it has been es­tab­lished that the treat­ment was un­suc­cess­ful.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall en­act the ne­ces­sary pro­vi­sions on data pro­tec­tion.

The Fed­er­al Of­fice shall re­tain the data for 80 years.

¹ Once the child has reached 18 years of age, he or she may re­quest in­form­a­tion from the Fed­er­al Of­fice about the donor’s phys­ic­al ap­pear­ance and per­son­al data (Art. 24 para. 2 lets. a and d).

² In ad­di­tion, the child may at any time re­quest in­form­a­tion on all the data re­lat­ing to the donor (Art. 24 para. 2) if he or she has a le­git­im­ate in­terest in ob­tain­ing it.

³ Be­fore the Fed­er­al Of­fice dis­closes per­son­al data, it shall in­form the donor if pos­sible. If the donor does not wish to have per­son­al con­tact, then the child must be in­formed and made aware of the donor’s rights of pri­vacy and his fam­ily’s en­ti­tle­ment to pro­tec­tion. If the child in­sists on his or her right to ob­tain in­form­a­tion un­der para­graph 1, the in­form­a­tion shall be provided.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may as­sign re­spons­ib­il­ity for hand­ling re­quests for in­form­a­tion to a spe­cial­ised fed­er­al com­mis­sion.

⁵ ...⁴⁷

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall es­tab­lish a na­tion­al eth­ics com­mis­sion.

² The com­mis­sion shall mon­it­or de­vel­op­ments in as­sisted re­pro­duct­ive tech­niques and gene tech­no­logy in the area of hu­man medi­cine and com­ment from an eth­ic­al per­spect­ive, in an ad­vis­ory ca­pa­city, on as­so­ci­ated so­cial, sci­entif­ic and leg­al is­sues.

³ In par­tic­u­lar, the com­mis­sion shall have the fol­low­ing tasks:

a.

to draw up ad­di­tion­al guidelines re­lat­ing to this Act;

b.

to identi­fy gaps in the le­gis­la­tion;

c.

to ad­vise the Fed­er­al As­sembly, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the can­tons on re­quest;

d.

to in­form the pub­lic about im­port­ant find­ings and to pro­mote de­bate on eth­ic­al mat­ters with­in so­ci­ety.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the oth­er tasks to be car­ried out by the com­mis­sion in the area of hu­man medi­cine. It shall en­act im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions.

¹ Any per­son who pro­duces an em­bryo by im­preg­na­tion with the in­ten­tion of us­ing it or hav­ing it used for pur­poses oth­er than the es­tab­lish­ment of a preg­nancy shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

² The same pen­alty shall ap­ply to any per­son who pre­serves an im­preg­nated ovum or an em­bryo in vitro with the in­ten­tion of us­ing it or hav­ing it used for pur­poses oth­er than the es­tab­lish­ment of a preg­nancy.

¹ Any per­son who al­lows an em­bryo to de­vel­op out­side the wo­man’s body bey­ond the point at which im­plant­a­tion in the uter­us re­mains pos­sible shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.⁴⁹

² The same pen­alty shall ap­ply to any per­son who trans­fers a hu­man em­bryo to an an­im­al.

¹ Any per­son who uses an as­sisted re­pro­duct­ive tech­nique in a sur­rog­ate moth­er shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.⁵⁰

² The same pen­alty shall ap­ply to any per­son who acts as an in­ter­me­di­ary for sur­rog­ate moth­er­hood.

¹ Any per­son who uses re­pro­duct­ive ma­ter­i­al ob­tained from an em­bryo or foetus to bring about im­preg­na­tion or fur­ther de­vel­op­ment in­to an em­bryo shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

² Any per­son who pur­chases or sells hu­man re­pro­duct­ive ma­ter­i­al or products de­rived from em­bry­os or foetuses shall be li­able to cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

³ If the of­fend­er acts in a pro­fes­sion­al ca­pa­city, the pen­alty shall be a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or a mon­et­ary pen­alty.⁵²

Any per­son who in the course of a re­pro­duct­ive tech­nique ana­lyses the ge­net­ic ma­ter­i­al of re­pro­duct­ive cells or em­bry­os in vitro and se­lects them ac­cord­ing to their sex or ac­cord­ing to oth­er char­ac­ter­ist­ics without over­com­ing in­fer­til­ity or avoid­ing the trans­mis­sion of the pre­dis­pos­i­tion to a ser­i­ous dis­ease to the off­spring shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

¹ Any per­son who uses an as­sisted re­pro­duct­ive tech­nique without the con­sent of the per­son from whom the re­pro­duct­ive cells are ob­tained or of the couple be­ing treated shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

² The same pen­alty shall ap­ply to any per­son who, act­ing without a li­cence or hav­ing ob­tained a li­cence by fraud­u­lent means, uses as­sisted re­pro­duct­ive tech­niques or pre­serves or sup­plies re­pro­duct­ive cells, im­preg­nated ova or em­bry­os in vitro or ar­ranges ana­lyses of the ge­net­ic ma­ter­i­al of em­bry­os in vitro.

¹ Any per­son who ge­net­ic­ally mod­i­fies a germline cell or an em­bryon­ic cell shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.⁵⁵

² The same pen­alty shall ap­ply to any per­son who uses a ge­net­ic­ally mod­i­fied re­pro­duct­ive cell for im­preg­na­tion or uses a sim­il­arly mod­i­fied im­preg­nated ovum for fur­ther de­vel­op­ment in­to an em­bryo.

³ Para­graph 1 does not ap­ply if the modi­fic­a­tion of germline cells is an un­avoid­able con­com­it­ant ef­fect of chemo­ther­apy, ra­dio­ther­apy or an­oth­er med­ic­al treat­ment that a per­son is un­der­go­ing.

¹ Any per­son who cre­ates a clone, a chi­mera or a hy­brid shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.⁵⁶

² The same pen­alty shall ap­ply to any per­son who trans­fers a chi­mera or a hy­brid to a wo­man or to an an­im­al.

Any per­son who wil­fully:

a.

uses an as­sisted re­pro­duct­ive tech­nique in a wo­man in con­tra­ven­tion of Art­icle 3 para­graph 2 let­ter a and para­graph 3;

b.⁵⁷

uses re­pro­duct­ive cells ob­tained from a per­son who is de­ceased, with the ex­cep­tion of the sperm cells of a de­ceased sperm donor;

b^bis.⁵⁸

uses im­preg­nated ova or em­bry­os in vitro ob­tained from a couple one of whom is de­ceased;

c.

uses donated ova, de­vel­ops an em­bryo us­ing donated ova and donated sperm cells, or trans­fers a donated em­bryo to a wo­man;

d.

uses as­sisted re­pro­duct­ive tech­niques in the ab­sence of a per­miss­ible in­dic­a­tion;

e.⁵⁹

...

f.

pre­serves re­pro­duct­ive ma­ter­i­al in con­tra­ven­tion of Art­icles 15, 16 and 42;

g.

de­vel­ops em­bry­os in con­tra­ven­tion of Art­icle 17 para­graph 1;

h.

donates sperm cells to sev­er­al hold­ers of li­cences un­der Art­icle 8 para­graph 1;

i.

uses donated sperm cells in con­tra­ven­tion of Art­icle 22 para­graphs 1–3;

j.

in­cor­rectly or in­com­pletely re­cords data re­quired in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 24;

shall be li­able to a fine not ex­ceed­ing 100,000 francs.⁶⁰

The pro­sec­u­tion and ad­ju­dic­a­tion of of­fences un­der this Act is the re­spons­ib­il­ity of the can­tons.

…⁶¹

¹ Any per­son who re­quires a li­cence ac­cord­ing to Art­icle 8 para­graph 1 must sub­mit an ap­plic­a­tion, to­geth­er with the re­quired doc­u­ments, to the li­cens­ing au­thor­ity with­in three months after the com­mence­ment of this Act.

²Any per­son who does not sub­mit the ap­plic­a­tion with­in the spe­cified peri­od must dis­con­tin­ue the activ­it­ies con­cerned.

¹Art­icles 18 and 24–27 also ap­ply if sperm cells have been donated be­fore, but are only used after, the com­mence­ment of this Act.

² In all oth­er cases, phys­i­cians who have used as­sisted re­pro­duct­ive tech­niques us­ing donated re­pro­duct­ive cells must provide in­form­a­tion, with the pro­vi­sions of Art­icle 27 ap­ply­ing mu­tatis mutandis.

¹ Any per­son who is stor­ing em­bry­os when this Act com­mences must in­form the li­cens­ing au­thor­ity ac­cord­ingly with­in three months. Art­icle 11 ap­plies.

² ...⁶²

Art­icle 23 also ap­plies to chil­dren con­ceived be­fore the com­mence­ment of this Act by means of an as­sisted re­pro­duct­ive tech­nique us­ing donor sperm.

The sub­mis­sion of re­ports and pro­pos­als in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 14a para­graph 4 shall take place for the first time five years after the Amend­ment of 12 Decem­ber 2014 comes in­to force.

¹ This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the com­mence­ment date.

Com­mence­ment date: 1 Janu­ary 2001⁶⁴