The majority of countries in Latin America do not have a formal regulation regarding assisted reproduction technologies. The presentation will analyze the specific attempts been made by Mexico to adopt such regulations, as well as the consequences of the ban of these technologies by Costa Rica`s Supreme Court.

In Mexico, although assisted reproduction technologies have been available for many years now, there is no formal regulation on this regard. The Federal Congress has had ongoing discussions trying to regulate these matters, but no consensus has been reached. In the meantime, three local Congresses (Mexico City, Guerrero and Morelos), have presented bills to regulate surrogacy. The presentation will focus on highlighting the main obstacles that have hindered the regulation at the federal level and the pros and cons of such regulation. It will also analyze how these laws purportedly further women`s human rights, but in reality have discriminatory effects as well as implementation problems.

After the Supreme Court of Costa Rica banned assisted reproduction technologies, the case was brought before the Inter-American Human Rights Commission who has already issued a preliminary report. The presentation will address how this international human rights mechanism might constitute good strategies to pressure governments to regulate these techniques in a proper way in order to safeguard human rights of everyone.