Bill Regulating Embryo Transfer Passes Senate
A bill requiring the written approval of donors before embryos and other human reproductive materials can be harvested and transferred to other patients sailed through the state Senate on Tuesday.
The legislation, approved on a 36-0 vote, was introduced by Assemblywoman Jackie Speier (D-Burlingame) in response to the human egg-swapping scandal at UC Irvine, where three doctors have been accused by former patients of taking eggs and embryos from women without consent and implanting them in other patients.
Under the proposed legislation, physicians would face possible loss of their medical licenses for “unprofessional conduct” if they did not obtain consent.
The bill, which also covers sperm donation, must go back to the Assembly for approval of Senate amendments.
A companion bill that would make it a felony to intentionally implant eggs or embryos without written consent, introduced by state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), is pending in the Assembly. It has already been passed by the Senate.
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