Uzbek parliament may pass a law permitting artificial insemination in the country 

 A draft law “On protecting the reproductive health of citizens” was submitted to the lower house of parliament. It will allow consolidating the system of improving the reproductive health of the population, preventing and treating infertility of women and men at the legislative level, as well as regulating public relations in the field of reproductive health. 
 
The main novelty of this draft law is that parliamentarians propose to gradually introduce modern auxiliary reproductive technologies into the healthcare system for the first time in native practice. 
 
One of the initiators of the bill – deputy chairman of the Committee on citizen health protection at the Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis Nuriya Aytjanova noted that this bill is aimed primarily at eradicating such a persistent problem of modernity as the sterility of women and men. It also opens the possibility for using in Uzbekistan of such innovative and widely used in foreign countries innovative approaches to childbirth, such as artificial insemination (IVF) and selection of healthy egg-cell with the removal of the “unwell” for the formation of a healthy gene pool. 
 
Special attention in the draft law is paid to the development of public-private partnership in the field of reproductive health, development of a network of non-state private medical institutions. 
 
This bill was considered in the factions of political parties and committees when parliamentarians considered the issue of relevance and timeliness of this legislative measure. Thus, at the meetings of the factions, it was noted that as a global problem of our time, issues of reproductive health and infertility act as priority areas of state policy. At the same time, some facts were announced. 
 
Hence, according to international experts, the prevalence of infertility among couples of reproductive age averages 10-15% in the world. According to various studies conducted in Uzbekistan, the proportion of women suffering from primary infertility, from among those who entered into marriage, ranges from 4,9% to 5,3%. 
 
In this regard, especially in the last two years, Uzbekistan has developed and is implementing a national model of reproductive health, mother and child health, recognized by the international community. 
 
Currently, the draft law is being prepared for submission to the plenary session of the Legislative Chamber for adoption in the first reading, where its conceptual provisions will be discussed. In the course of finalizing and as a result of parliamentary discussions, authors of the draft law had to give up some of its provisions. Thus, as a result of discussions at the responsible Committee, it was decided that it would be premature to fix certain modern types of auxiliary reproductive technologies in the bill, such as surrogate motherhood, embryo donation. 
 
During preparation of the draft law for adoption by the lower house of parliament in the first reading, particular attention was paid to giving its norms a direct action in order not to require the adoption of secondary legislation allowing arbitrary interpretation of the law in medical practice.  
 
Work on the draft law continues at the Committee. At the present time, proposals and recommendations from factions, committees and commissions are summarized on it.