Bill > A05046

This bill creates comprehensive legal protections against fertility fraud by establishing multiple mechanisms to address situations where health care practitioners use human reproductive material without proper consent. Specifically, the bill adds a new criminal provision that makes it a fourth-degree aggravated sexual abuse offense for a health care practitioner (such as a physician, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant) to use human reproductive material from themselves or a donor during an assisted reproduction procedure without the patient's express consent. The bill also creates a private right of action that allows patients, their spouses, legally determined parents, or children born through such procedures to sue health care practitioners, donors, and reproductive service providers who engage in various forms of fertility fraud, such as using unauthorized reproductive material, providing false donor information, or violating established medical regulations. Patients can seek damages including attorneys' fees, compensatory and punitive damages, and the costs of the original reproductive procedure. The bill extends the statute of limitations for such actions, allowing lawsuits to be filed up to ten years after the child's 18th birthday or up to three years after discovering evidence of fraud through methods like DNA analysis. Additionally, the bill adds fertility fraud to the definition of professional misconduct for medical professionals, potentially impacting their professional licenses.

Housing and Urban Affairs

https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/A5046