Croatia plans to import sperm and egg cells from the EU, the Jutarnji List daily wrote on Monday, stating that there are no local donors, and the cells should come from licensed banks.

Couples from Croatia who need to donate sperm or eggs for this type of medically assisted fertilization in order to achieve parenthood should soon no longer have to go abroad. The Croatian Society for Human Reproduction and Endocrinology has started, in cooperation with the state administration, to prepare for the import of sex cells from highly controlled licensed banks in the European Union, such as those from Spain, Denmark, Italy and other countries that can comply with Croatian regulations.

The procedure, after the necessary regulations are adopted and contracts with banks are signed, is relatively simple. When doctors determine that a specific couple cannot conceive without donated gametes, the authorized health institution for carrying out heterologous fertilization procedures will order the necessary gametes from the bank.

They will arrive in Croatia by plane, according to a precisely determined procedure that is the same for donated sex cells as for organ transplantation, and will be stored in an authorized institution and used for fertilization and embryo creation exclusively for that specific couple.

Further use of gametes, i.e. their repurposing for another couple, will not be possible. The right to a known origin of gamete donation in Croatia is enabled by the Law on Medical Fertilization from 2012.

The assumed reason for the lack of interest is the fact that, according to the law, the donor cannot be anonymous. In Croatia, it seems, no one is ready for that, according to the daily.