Can Improvements in the Romanian Legislation on Medically Assisted Reproduction Alleviate the Demographic Crisis?

Abstract

Romania, in line with the other European countries, has a country-wide demographic problem due to a below-replacement level fertility rate and decline in the total number of children. Infertility is a major societal problem that plagues numerous families. This unfulfilled potential of infertile couples and single women to have children has contributed to the demographic crisis, which can be alleviated by helping willing parents have children instead of trying to persuade reluctant childless adults to have children or to have more children than they originally planned to have. Fertility treatments and in-vitro fertilisation are expensive procedures that are not covered by public health insurance; consequently, government policy and financing can play a major role in helping couples pay for fertility treatments, thereby increasing Romania’s birth rate. Public funds remain limited in this regard, so legal norms are defining which couples or single women are eligible to receive money for fertility treatments. The purpose of public policy should be to increase the efficiency of spending public funds for the best fertility results, without an ideological bias in regard to the recipients’ traditional or non-traditional family structures.