On Tuesday, the Senate voted through a motion to enable the fertility treatment, following a similar vote by the House of Representatives in March.
Swiss law currently allows for sperm donations but not of egg cells, forcing women to take an estimated 500 trips per year to countries such as Spain to receive such treatment. The majority of parliamentarians have voted to even up options for men and women.
The government is now obliged to draw up a legal basis to make egg cell donations possible in Switzerland, even though cabinet ministers had opposed a such move at this time.
Interior Minister Alain Berset had argued that it would be better to wait for the results of an evaluation of the Reproductive Medicines Act. The first findings of this review are expected next year.
Parliament’s approval of egg cell donations is unlikely to be the final word on the matter as any changes to the law could be challenged by referendum.
This could delay the introduction of egg cell donations by several years, reports Swiss public broadcaster SRF.
Young undocumented migrants gain easier access to vocational training
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Rejected asylum-seekers and young undocumented migrants in Switzerland will have easier access to basic vocational training from June 1.
Migration: Swiss government wants to shorten reunification period for families
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Family members of people temporarily admitted to Switzerland should in future be able to join them after two years instead of three.
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2023 was a record year for the Rhaetian Railway in several respects. Never before has the narrow-gauge railway in Graubünden, eastern Switzerland, transported so many passengers and cars.
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The main concerns of business leaders in Switzerland are geopolitical uncertainty and the important trading partners Germany and China.
Record organ donation in Switzerland despite high rejection rates
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More organ donations were recorded in Switzerland in 2023 than ever before. This was despite a high rejection rate of 58% by surviving relatives.
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Seven years after the death of record-breaking Swiss mountain climber Ueli Steck, his estate is going to the Alpine Museum of Switzerland in Bern.
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Couples face fight for fertility treatments
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The current system means doctors are restricted as to what treatments they can offer patients who have difficulty conceiving naturally. The study by the Swiss National Science Foundation analysed how policy has been shaped in a number of countries over the past two decades. Eleven countries in total were considered, including France, Spain, Italy, Belgium,…
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Thursday’s vote comes just weeks after it was revealed that a so-called “medicine baby”, conceived through in-vitro fertilisation in Belgium, had been born to a Swiss couple. Parliamentarians voted by 92 to 63 to allow pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) under strict conditions. The cabinet will now have to draw up new legislation to be submitted…
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Donor numbers dipped following a new law which ruled out donor anonymity. The law was introduced on January 1, 2001, following an amendment to the Swiss constitution in 1992. The new legislation brought Switzerland into line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that all children have the right…
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The average age of women giving birth in Switzerland hovers around 32. The number of over 35s having children is also growing. We examine the shifts.
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But, as expected, it refused to give the go-ahead for research on the embryos themselves until a new law is formulated. The proposals still need to be approved by the House of Representatives before they become law. A Senate commission had already made changes to the draft legislation – distinguishing between stem cell research and…
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