Judgment of 17 November 1989
Annual Review of Population Law 16: 48-49
1989
ISSN/ISBN: 0364-3417 PMID: 12344438 Document Number: 383686
In the Federal Republic of Germany, the plaintiff, a licensed gynaecologist, challenged the decision of the Baden-Wurttemberg Physician's Council to deny his request to perform in vitro fertilization procedures as part of his practice. The Council claimed that he could not comply with rules contained in its guidelines on such procedures and in requirements set by section 7 of its Ordinance on Professional Qualification. The court reversed the Council's decision, which it found to have no statutory basis as required by Article 12(1) of the Basic Law and, as such, to constitute an impermissible limitation on the plaintiff's right under Article 12 to practice medicine. It held that the performance of in vitro fertilization procedures was within the scope of duties of a gynecologist and that, so long as a gynecologist fulfilled the qualifications set for that speciality, including continuing education requirements, the gynecologist was entitled to perform these procedures.