POLICY AND PRACTICE REVIEWS article
Front. Reprod. Health
Sec. Assisted Reproduction
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frph.2025.1633574
Legal Protections for In Vitro Embryos in Paraguay and Comparative Contexts
Provisionally accepted
- 1Facultad de Derecho y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Nacional de Asunción, San Lorenzo, Paraguay
- 2Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Nacional de Asunción, San Lorenzo, Paraguay
- 3Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Asunción, San Lorenzo, Paraguay
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The legal protection of in vitro embryos in Paraguay remains a complex and unresolved issue because of the absence of specific legislation regulating assisted reproductive technologies. This study analyses Paraguay’s current legal framework, which relies on constitutional norms and international treaties to guarantee the right to life and reproductive rights. The Constitution protects the right to life from the moment of conception, but the precise definition of ‘conception’ is subject to debate. The Paraguayan Civil Code acknowledges the inception of a natural person from conception without specifying whether this occurs inside or outside the mother's womb. Domestic legal doctrines suggest that human life conceived through in vitro fertilisation should be legally safeguarded. A comparative analysis of international perspectives reveals the complexities and variances in the legal protection of in vitro embryos, with countries adopting value-oriented, procedure-oriented, or hybrid approaches. This study highlights the need for comprehensive guidelines in Paraguay to address issues related to embryo storage, research, donation, consent, filiation, and dispute-resolution mechanisms. As reproductive technologies continue to advance, Paraguay faces the challenge of developing a regulatory framework that balances respect for constitutional principles, alignment with international obligations, and nuanced ethical considerations of human embryos and reproductive rights.
Keywords: Assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs), conception, In vitro embryos, Reproductive Rights, Right to life
Received: 22 May 2025; Accepted: 18 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lezcano, Gustavo González Morel, Nara Pereira and Fernández Ríos. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Danilo Fernández Ríos, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Asunción, San Lorenzo, Paraguay
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