ABSTRACT
Centres owe a ‘duty of care’ to their clients or patients and as such should only apply methods to samples, which are validated and have had any associated risk adequately assessed and controlled. Such practice is now mandatory for centers within the European Union (EU), which should operate only within a quality management framework and justification for current practice has to be demonstrable (see later in this chapter and Table 2). The following chapter therefore discusses the evidence base for current practice and whether or not there is scope for improvement in order that the final product (frozen-thawed sperm) is, in clinical terms, of as high a standard as it can be.
