In the past, there had been mushrooming of IVF-centers in India, which required the government of India to regulate and supervise the treatment in the overall interest of the patients. Undoubtedly, minimum levels of standards are required for any such treatment involving advanced technology with wider emotional, social, ethical and legal implications. Not infrequently, the conflicts related to IVF-outcomes raise inter-country and international disputes.
There is a common perception (or misconception) about lack of transparency in medical procedures in India such as the In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF). It is for this purpose that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Department of Health Research) Government of India, enacted the ART-Act (for Assisted Reproduction Technology) in December 2021. The Act imparts several obligations on the part of the ART centers doing IVF treatment. Most importantly, the Act envisages transparency with relation to the procedure. It envisages the ART team to provide the following:
- Professional counselling to commissioning couple and the woman about all the implications and chances of success of assisted reproductive technology procedures in the clinic;
- Inform the commissioning couple and woman of the advantages,
- dis advantages and cost of the procedures, their medical side-Effects and risks including the risk of multiple pregnancy;
- Help the commissioning couple or woman to arrive at an informed decision on such matters that would most likely be the best for the commissioning couple;
- To make commissioning couple or woman, aware of the rights of a child born through the use of assisted technology.
It is also expected that the clinics shall issue to the commissioning couple or woman a discharge certificate stating details of the assisted reproductive technology procedure performed on the commissioning couple or woman. ART law mandates discharge of all information to the patients which includes records on details of the procedure, the details of the IVF medicines used, number of follicles, eggs, embryos, embryo quality, number and quality of embryos transferred and frozen.
The ART Act requirements have put significant burden on the part of the centers and the doctors, who normally are seen as poor record-keepers in spite of doing their best for the patients. But there is no alternative and the patients’ rights are required to be taken care of in accordance with the law of the land. We, at your best IVF center of the town at Jindal IVF respect the patient’s rights and meticulously follow all the details. Record-keeping requires to be inculcated as a routine habit. It becomes an automatic action once the habit gets ingrained in the minds of the people of any ART center.
