New Zealand

	New Zealand
	Information
Region	Oceania
Population	4252000
GDP (millions USD)	128,141
	National Policies
Eggs for assisted reproduction	commercial prohibited
Eggs for research	commercial prohibited
Inheritable genetic modification	PROHIBITED
Preimplantation genetic diagnosis	social uses prohibited
Reproductive cloning	PROHIBITED
Research cloning	PROHIBITED
Sex selection	PROHIBITED
Surrogacy	commercial prohibited
	International Agreements
2005 UN Cloning Vote	no
2005 UNESCO Sports Doping Convention	RATIFIED

Key laws and policies

Advisory Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology, Guidelines on Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (March 2005)

The 2004 Act prohibits in Schedule 1:

It also prohibits:

The development of in vitro embryos beyond 14 days or the appearance of the primitive streak
Social sex selection
Sale of embryos and gametes
Commercial surrogacy(Section 14(3) HART Act): Penalties include imprisonment up to one year or a fine not exceeding $100,000, or both. The current surrogacy guidelines exclude single men and male couples entering into surrogacy arrangements as intending parents.

Altruistic Surrogacy

Surrogacy arrangements are not illegal but not enforceable.
Reasonable and necessary expenses may be reimbursed.
The woman giving birth is the legal mother, regardless of who donated the gametes.
If she is married or has a partner, there may be a legal presumption that her husband, wife or partner is the other parent (s18 of the Status of Children Act).
Adoption by the commissioning parent/s is necessary to extinguish the birth mother's (and father's/other partner's) legal parenthood (s16(2) of the Adoption Act 1955).

Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis

PGD may not be used for social reasons, including sex selection, to "alter the genetic constitution of an embryo" or to select for "a genetic impairment seen in a parent."

Posthumous Use of Gametes

Donation of Gametes and Embryos

Donation of gametes and embryos permitted.
Must be an altruistic donation. (Reasonable and necessary medical expenses may be paid to the Provider not the surrogate/donor.)
New Zealand clinics may offer reimbursement to gamete donors for traveling costs in some situations.
The donor must provide information including:
- General information (name, gender, address, height, eye color), personal/cultural information (place and country of birth, ethnicity and cultural affiliation, whanau, iwi and hapu if Maori), medical history of donor's family (if the provider thinks it is necessary), and why the donor chose to donate
Offspring over the age of 18 are able to access the information.

Egg Donation

Ethical approval from ECART is required for egg donation if:

Approvals

Ethics Advisory Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology (ECART)

Procedures that require case by case ethical approval include:

IVF surrogacy
Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis with Human Leucocyte Antigen tissue typing (i.e. "savior sibling" situations)
Combined assisted reproductive procedures (i.e. egg donation from a family member with a surrogacy arrangement)
Creation and use of embryos created from donor sperm and donor eggs
Donation of eggs and sperm between some family members
Extending storage of sperm, eggs, and embryos beyond the ten year limitation