Acta Universitatis Danubius. Administratio, Vol 5, No 2 (2013)

Abstract

This article interrogates financial access to Assisted Reproductive Technologies and suggests the need for treatment to be subsidized. Research shows that six to eight million people experience infertility globally with greater concentration in developing countries like Nigeria. The work discusses the theoretical foundation of access to ART: it weighs the two opposing positions on the public funding and access to ART. It finds that socio-cultural consequences of infertility make it an issue of mental health with implications on reproductive rights: reproductive rights embrace some human rights already recognized such as the right to health, the right to freedom from discrimination, the right to privacy and the right not to be subjected to inhuman treatment. Therefore, State responsibility for reproductive rights under the international human rights regime sufficiently imposes a duty to improve financial access to ART through subsidization of costs. Furthermore, it argues that in Nigeria, the Constitutional framework, the National Policy on Health and the National Health Insurance Scheme inter alia justify government funding. The work concludes that reproductive rights commitment of governments demands the elimination/reduction of the constraint of financial access to ART.