The
Assisted Reproductive Treatment Amendment Act 2013 (Vic) amends the
Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 2008 (Vic) - highlighted in previous posts about the Victorian ART
regime - to
(a) to permit the Patient Review Panel, in exceptional circumstances, to extend storage periods for gametes and embryos without the written approval of the person who produced the gametes or a person who produced gametes from which the embryo was formed;
(b) to permit the Patient Review Panel, in exceptional circumstances, to extend storage periods for gametes and embryos if the storage period has expired;
(c) to provide for a 20-year storage period for gametes obtained from a child or from an adult certified as at risk of premature infertility;
(d) to provide that gametes and embryos kept in storage on commencement of this Act are lawfully stored despite expiry of the storage period;
(e) to allow time for removal of gametes and embryos from storage after the storage period expires; and
(f) to alter the constitution of the Patient Review Panel and make other amendments to improve its operation.
The administrative amendments for example are meant to "allow the Patient Review Panel to operate more flexibly and efficiently" through enabling the Panel to be "constituted by a single member in order to determine time-sensitive extension of storage period applications as expeditiously as possible".
