A panel of experts commissioned by the Health and Welfare Ministry has agreed to conditionally allow infertile couples to undergo in vitro fertilization using donated ova or sperm, as well as transplants of donated fertilized ova, panel members said.
The panel plans to work out its final recommendations by the end of the year. The recommendations will be the government's first-ever guidelines on reproductive medicine.
The team, headed by Kinko Nakatani, a professor emeritus of law at Keio University, concluded that these methods should only be allowed for couples who cannot have children by other means and that legislation on the matter will be established in three years.