Special Section: The Many Voices of Spanish Bioethics Assisted Reproductive Technology in Spain: Considering Women’s Interests INMACULADA DE MELO-MARTI ´ N It might come as a surprise to many that Spain, a country with a strong Catholic tradition that officially banned contraceptive technologies until 1978, has some of the most liberal regulations in assisted reproduction in the world. Law No. 35/1988 was one of the first and most detailed acts of legislation undertaken on the subject of assisted-conception procedures. Indeed, not only did the law permit research on nonviable embryos, it made assisted reproductive technologies available to any woman, whether married or not, through the national healthcare system. 1 That such liberal laws on assisted reproduction were enacted in Spain is less shocking when one realizes that the Socialist government of Felipe Gonza ´lez was in power at that time. As with the recent debate on stem cell research under another Socialist administration, that of Jose ´ Luis Rodrı ´guez Zapatero, 2 the debate on assisted reproductive technology (ART) in Spain was framed as a dispute between science and religion and resulted in a high-decibel argument between what has been called ‘‘las dos Espan ˜ as.’’ 3 Today, 25 years after the first ‘‘test-tube baby’’ was born in Spain, more than 12,000 are the result of ART. The initial controversies surrounding these technologies have now withered. When they arise, they usually focus on the moral status of the embryo or on the safety of new techniques such as preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). Less attention has been paid, however, to the effects of ART regulations on the well-being of women. Of course, the degree to which women’s interests are taken into account in these regulations varies from country to country. In this paper, I examine the new Spanish law on ART and explore its impact on women’s welfare. My goal is to evaluate some of the new provisions to see whether women’s interests are advanced and, if so, how. Spain is a particularly interesting case study because the status of women has changed significantly during the past three decades, with levels of educational, political, and economic attainment among the best in the European Union. Regulating Assisted Reproductive Technologies in Spain As would be expected, advances in the science and technology of ART have not been disregarded by the Spanish public or by the different administrations. In fact, it has been a response to those changes that instigated regulatory revisions in this area. First Regulatory Effort In April 1986, and under the Socialist government of Felipe Gonzalez, Marcelo Palacios, president of a special commission set up by the Spanish Cortes Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics (2009), 18, 228–235. Printed in the USA. Copyright Ó 2009 Cambridge University Press 0963-1801/09 $20.00 228 doi:10.1017/S0963180109090379