BILL NUMBER: S6720

SPONSOR: MARTINEZ
 
TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the penal law, in relation to estab-
lishing fertility fraud as a class E felony offense

 
PURPOSE:

This legislation will create the new crime of fertility fraud, using
human reproductive material without consent.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1. New section in the penal law

   1. Sets the criteria for fertility fraud as knowingly or
   intentionally performing an assisted reproductive procedure using:

       a. The health care providers own human reproductive material

       b. Using a donor's human reproductive material that without the
              

       patient's consent

       c. Using human reproductive material without the donor's consent

   2. Definitions Fertility fraud is a class e felony.

Section 2. Effective Date

 
JUSTIFICATION:

In one high profile case, it was found that a doctor used his own sperm
rather than an anonymous donor, and ultimately claimed to have over 50
biological children. In another case, the sperm bank had given the
patient sperm other than the sperm she had selected.

New York must enact this new legislation in order to protect women
across the state. Individuals deserve to be confident that the human
reproductive material is the material that they have consented to.
Three other states (Indiana, California, and Texas) have created the
crime of fertility fraud.

Patients receiving the incorrect human reproductive material often feel
violated and deceived. Unfortunately, our courts have not held that
receiving the wrong sperm is fraud unless the child is unhealthy. The
Food and Drug Administration only oversees this industry to ensure that
the reproductive material does not have communicable diseases and meets
general eligibility requirements for donation. The FDA does not have any
guidelines relating to the donor selection process. The lack of regu-
lation in this industry has made it difficult to seek justice for a
patient who receives nonconsensual human reproductive material.

Health care facilities should be held to the highest standard - ensuring
that any human reproductive material was the material in which the
patient consented to, without fear of a mix-up or intentional fraud.
Fertility fraud would be a class E felony, A class E felony is punisha-
ble by up to 4 years in jail and up to a $5,000 fine.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
None.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

To be determined.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
120 days after it shall have become law