ABSTRACT
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 19901 sets out to regulate selected parts of reproductive medicine in the United Kingdom. The Act subjects fertility specialists to constraints on their practice and their research quite separate from, and over and above, those legal and ethical constraints generally applicable to all medical practitioners. The Act places limits on what patients seeking certain treatments for infertility may ask for and receive. It creates in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority an apparently powerful regulatory body with powers to control the practice and development of embryology and certain fertility treatments. Reproductive medicine is singled out as special, as a part of medicine of such particular social concern and significance that the state should have a direct stake in its evolution. In singling out reproductive medicine for especial regulatory concern, the United Kingdom is not alone.
