Legal regulation and problems of the implementation of postmortem assisted reproductive technologies: the experience of Russia and foreign countries (analytical review)

The problem of researching the legal institute of assisted reproductive technologies is very relevant in Russia and abroad. The world is searching for optimal legal regulation of postmortem assistive technologies to ensure the possibility of continuing the life of citizens in future generations, including as a result of premature death. In Russia, this problem has become more urgent due to changes in legislation in 2022, which significantly limited people’s access to surrogacy, which was also used as a means to realize the posthumous birth of children.

The purpose of the work. To consider the concept of «postmortem assisted reproductive technologies», to assess the implementation of mechanisms of postmortem assisted reproductive technologies in Russia and abroad.

Regulatory legal acts, law enforcement practice on the implementation of postmortem assisted human reproduction, scientific literature published over 2018–2024 in the databases Scopus, Web of Science, Pubmed, CyberLeninka, eLIBRARY.RU have been studied and analyzed.

Dialectical and logical methods made it possible to consider comprehensively the problems of using postmortem assisted reproductive technologies in Russia; the comparative legal method was used in the analysis of normative acts of foreign countries, the formal legal method provided the qualification of the legal facts of postmortem reproductive technologies in relation to legal norms.

Conclusion. The development of legal regulation of public relations is the constitutional responsibility of public authorities, therefore, it is the State and public authorities that have the responsibility to regulate and ensure the possibility of having children from deceased men. The author’s opinion on the prospects for the development of current Russian legislation regulating postmortem assisted reproductive technologies is given.

Contribution of the authors:
Basova A.V. — concept and design, writing of the article, design, approval of the final version of the article;
Komkova G.N. — concept and design, writing of the article, editing, approval of the final version of the article.

Funding. The study had no sponsorship.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Received: February 28, 2025 / Revised: March 26, 2025 / Accepted: June 24, 2025 / Published: September 12, 2025

1. Opilat N.I., Panichkin V.B. Inheritance by posthumously conceived posthumous children: foreign theory and practice. Semeinoe i zhilishchnoe pravo. 2024; (2): 9–12. https://doi.org/10.18572/1999-477X-2024-2-9-12 https://elibrary.ru/bjysfs (in Russian)

2. Iliadis Ch., Frantzana A., Ouzounakis P., Tachtsoglou K. Ethical dilemmas in posthumous assisted reproduction. Am. J. Biomed. Sci. Res. 2019; 5(3). https://doi.org/10.34297/AJBSR.2019.05.000902

3. Stein A., Altman E., Rotlevi M., Seh D., Wertheimer A., Ben-Haroush A., et al. Single men‘s attitudes towards posthumous use of their sperm cryopreserved due to illness in Israel. Andrology. 2024; 12(2): 380–4. https://doi.org/10.1111/andr.13483

4. Pollens-Voigt J., Taylor L., Marks A. Ethical and practical considerations of perimortem gamete procurement for palliative care providers. J. Pain Symptom Manage. 2024; 67(1): e94–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2023.08.026

5. Burmistrova E.V. Features of legal regulation of posthumous reproductive programs in Russia. Sovremennoe pravo. 2024; (4): 79–82. https://elibrary.ru/pgjhqd (in Russian)

6. Niyakaya M.P. Problems of realization of the right of inheritance of a child conceived artificially after the death of the testator. In: 25 years of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation: traditions and innovations of private law development: Materials of the international scientific and practical conference (with an element of the school of a young scientist) [25 let grazhdanskomu kodeksu Rossiiskoi Federatsii: traditsii i novatsii chastnopravovogo razvitiya: Materialy mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii (s elementom shkoly molodogo uchenogo)]. Tambov: Print-Servis; 2019: 719–23. (in Russian)

7. Allamyarova N.V., Sanakoeva E.G., Garaeva A.S. Ethical and legal aspects of postmortal reproduction. Problemy standartizatsii v zdravookhranenii. 2018; (11-12): 13–9. https://doi.org/10.26347/1607-2502201811-12013-019 https://elibrary.ru/ytyqkd (in Russian)

8. Ozhegov S.I. Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian language: 100,000 Words and Phraseological Expressions [Tolkovyi slovar’ russkogo yazyka: 100 000 slov i frazeologicheskikh vyrazhenii]. Moscow: AST; 2024. (in Russian)

9. Gat I., Umanski A., Kaufman S., Kedem A., Avraham S., Youngster M., et al. What can we learn about posthumous sperm retrieval after extra long-term follow-up? J. Assist. Reprod. Genet. 2022; 39(7): 1661–5. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-022-02535-8

10. Muravyeva E.V. Legal problems of postmortem reproduction. Nauka i obrazovanie: khozyaistvo i ekonomika; predprinimatel’stvo; pravo i upravlenie. 2021; (12): 70–4. https://elibrary.ru/axuymu (in Russian)

11. Shenshin V.M., Pascar S.S. On the criminal law regulation of assisted reproductive technologies in Russia and in some foreign countries. Agrarnoe i zemel’noe pravo. 2023; (8): 105–9. https://doi.org/10.47643/1815-1329_2023_8_105 https://elibrary.ru/jqzisy (in Russian)

12. Grin L., Girsh E., Harlev A. Male fertility preservation – methods, indications and challenges. Andrologia. 2021; 53(2): e13635. https://doi.org/10.1111/and.13635

13. Myakinina S.B., Soloviev A.A., Sheyafetdinova N.A. Postmortem reproduction as a component of the social function of the state. Teoriya gosudarstva i prava. 2024; (1): 156–65. https://doi.org/10.47905/MATGIP_2024_1_35_156 https://elibrary.ru/aipulr (in Russian)

14. Denisova I. Make Me Accurate. How Reproductive Technologies Are Changing the World [Sdelai menya tochno. Kak reproduktivnye tekhnologii menyayut mir]. Moscow: Individuum; 2021. (in Russian)