Abstract

This chapter offers an overview of the American legal landscape surrounding assisted reproductive technologies (ART). The three basic sources of law are set out, explaining how constitutional law, statutory law and case law regulate the use of assisted conception. Historically, protection of ART as a constitutional right has been questionable, but grows more uncertain in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision ending constitutional protection for abortion rights. Congress has paid scant attention to assisted conception as a method of family formation, weighing in only to enact a reporting scheme that collects annual data. Federal legislative efforts have instead been directed at prohibiting the U.S. government from funding any research in which human embryos are created or destroyed, quelling research progress in areas such as germline genome editing and mitochondrial replacement therapy. The bulk of ART regulation is contained in state law that addresses a host of issues, including the parental status of ART offspring, the legality of surrogate parenting arrangements, the division of embryos upon divorce, and the penalties for gametes misdirection and misappropriation. Looking ahead, emerging reproductive technologies may struggle to find solid support in a comprehensive legal regime given the prevailing scattershot approach favored by American lawmakers.