THE MARGIN OF APPRECIATION RECOGNIZED FOR THE SIGNATORY STATES OF THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE FIELD OF MEDICALLY ASSISTED HUMAN REPRODUCTION

Georgeta Bianca SPÎRCHEZ

Abstract: The following study focuses on a subject that is facing an obvious dynamic, correlated with the latest progress of medical sciencesthat of medically assisted human reproduction. The option for analysing such a theme lies in the fact that it continues to generate issues not only of legal nature, but also ethical and moral ones, extremely delicate, having significant consequences in matters of family relationships. As there is no unitary approach at European level, we intend to examine, through this article, the general principles that emerge from the European Court of Human Rights caselaw (as all Member States of the European Union are part of the European Convention of Human Rights). Thus, the international jurisdiction recognizes for the signatory States of the European Convention on Human Rights an appropriate margin of appreciation, which the European Court considers the States should enjoy in this sphere, but subject the decisions of the national authorities to a critical evaluation, in order to investigate the observance of the right balance between the competing interests. Drafting the work plan of the paper, we considered, in its first part, the elements of analysis that make up the margin of appreciation doctrine, having in mind, afterwards, their application in concrete cases brought before the ECHR, cases that are confined to the problem of assisted procreation.

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