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Parentage and Access to Origins

Assisted Reproduction – Belgium: End of donor anonymity… to better safeguard the child’s interests?

On 27 February, the Belgian Federal Government’s Council of Ministers approved a preliminary draft bill aimed at completely abolishing the anonymity of gamete donors (sperm and oocytes) in the context of assisted reproduction. From now on, children born through donation will be able, from the age of 16, to access...

24 March 2026

Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide

Scotland – Rejection of the assisted suicide bill: a strong signal at European level?

On 17 March 2026, the Scottish Parliament rejected the “Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults Bill” at its third reading, by 69 votes to 57. This vote brings to an end a legislative process lasting nearly two years,...

24 March 2026

Fertility and Pregnancy

Perinatal bereavement – Belgium: towards the possibility of burial for all stillborn foetuses, regardless of gestational age?

In its Opinion No. 90 published at the end of 2025, the Belgian Bioethics Advisory Committee examined the ‘Funeral destination of foetuses that are stillborn at an early gestational age’. Among its recommendations is...

19 February 2026

Organ Donation

Donating one’s face after euthanasia: when death on demand turns the body into a resource

In autumn 2025, the Vall d'Hebron Hospital in Barcelona performed a face transplant on a patient suffering from a bacterial infection. In twenty years, around fifty transplants of this type have been performed worldwide...

12 February 2026

Medically Assisted Reproduction

From embryo screening to eugenics: how private companies circumvent national legislation

Even as assisted reproductive technology (ART) becomes increasingly widespread (+19.7% between 2015 and 2022 in Belgium alone), more and more couples are turning to commercial tests to select the best embryos or gametes. In the United Kingdom, tests carried out on embryos (pre-implantation diagnosis, PGD) during in vitro fertilisation (IVF) are legally limited to serious health problems (HFE Act), such as Huntington's disease, sickle cell anaemia or cystic fibrosis. However, some couples have circumvented this restriction by sending the genetic data of their embryos to the American company Herasight to help them choose embryos that will produce healthier and more intelligent children.

29 January 2026

Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide

Bioethics in 2026: what developments can we expect at Belgian and European level?

The coming year promises to bring important new debates in several European countries and at European Union level, particularly on artificial reproduction, surrogacy, euthanasia and abortion, but also on new issues...

16 January 2026

Medically Assisted Reproduction

European IVF scandal: at least 197 children conceived using a donor carrying a cancer-causing gene (including 53 in Belgium)

On 7 January, the Belgian Federal Parliament's Health and Equal Opportunities Committee heard from Public Health Minister Franck Vandenbroucke about the gamete scandal. MPs are seeking to find out how such an overrun...

15 January 2026

Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide

Belgium: Bioethics Advisory Committee in favour of extending advance euthanasia declarations to persons who have become incapable of deciding for themselves

In an opinion issued on 10 November 2025, Belgium's Bioethics Advisory Committee unanimously recommended amending the law on euthanasia to extend the scope of advance euthanasia declarations. The Committee proposed that...

13 January 2026