In Search of an Appropriate Policy on Regulating Assisted Reproductive Technologies and Ascertaining the Parentage of Children Born as a Result of ART : Critical Examination of “the Act on ART 2020” in Japan

The Diet passed the “Act on the Use and Regulations of Assisted Reproductive Technologies（ ART） and on the Special Provisions of the Civil Code regarding the Parentage of Resultant Children”（ hereafter, “the Act on ART 2020” or “the Act”） and it was promulgated on the 11th of December 2020. The Act is the first law to address the issue on ART, but it is limited in scope and contains only two articles on the ascertainment of parentage of children, which are of little meaning. This bill was sponsored by the members of the House of Councilors（ Upper House） and cleared the Committee on Judicial Affairs of that House on the 19th of November 2020, and the House itself on the 20th of the same month. After that, it cleared the Committee on Judicial Affairs of the House of Representatives（ Lower House） on the 2nd of December, and the Lower House on the 4th of the same month. The deliberation took less than 2 hours and 37 minutes and less than 2 hours 49 minutes at Committees on Judicial Affairs of the Upper House and the Lower House, respectively. Not much time was taken for deliberations, which means that the law gained support from both the ruling coalition and the opposition parties, but that is related to the limited scope of the Act, which staves off complicated debates such as the child’s right to access information about the donor. The part on the amendments to the civil code （chapter 3 of the Act） will come into effect on the 11th of December 2021 and apply to children born from that day on. Also, according to the supplementary provision § 3, the Act is scheduled to be amended over the following two years in order to secure the appropriate use of ART. So, the members of the Diet must continue to address issues concerning the appropriate governance of ART, regulations on the donation of sperm, ova, and embryos and/or the regulations on the procurement and/or transaction of them, and the system of storage, management, and disclosure of personal information of donors, recipients and children born with ART. It also stipulates that the provisions on the ascertainment of parentage may be amended to further the stability of parent-child relationship born as a result of ART, based on the amendments to the appropriate regulations of ART, if necessary. The Act has many shortcomings because it is a product of compromise, putting off essential issues to future discussion as mentioned above. However, there is still a chance of it becoming a useful law if we are able to use the two years for serious discussions. This paper tries to offer some viewpoints on important issues surrounding ART in attempt to aid and expedite this happening.departmental bulletin pape