Reproductive medicine Federal Council wants to allow egg and sperm donation for all couples

SDA

30.1.2025 - 09:00

The Federal Council wants to open up egg and sperm donation to all couples. According to Health Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider, many detailed questions are still open.
The Federal Council wants to open up egg and sperm donation to all couples. According to Health Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider, many detailed questions are still open.
Keystone

In future, all couples in Switzerland should be able to make use of egg and sperm donation if they wish to have children. The Federal Council communicated this fundamental decision on Thursday. The Reproductive Medicine Act is to be amended accordingly.

Keystone-SDA

The Federal Council was instructed by Parliament to legalize egg donation. A corresponding motion was referred to the federal government in September 2022. The majority in the Council of States was narrow.

According to Parliament, the aim of allowing egg donation is to prevent married couples from traveling abroad to fulfill their desire to have children. The Federal Council supports this goal, but wants to go further than the National Council and Council of States, as it decided in principle on Wednesday.

It then proposes that unmarried couples should also be able to donate eggs and sperm. "The Federal Council is of the opinion that the restriction to married couples is no longer in keeping with the times and does not correspond to social reality," it wrote.

The Federal Council has instructed the Federal Department of Home Affairs (FDHA) to draw up a consultation draft by the end of 2026.