This bill, forwarded to parliament today, regulates a medically and ethically sensitive area after 26 years.
Under the bill, a single woman would be entitled to artificial insemination, but women living in same-sex relationships would not.
The bill envisages legal and psychological assistance before artificial insemination, as well as the secrecy of all data.
The bill also envisages the establishment of a state registry of donations of gender and egg cells, and proposes that one donor's cells may be used for the birth of a maximum three children.
Under the bill, a semen donor's identity could be revealed only in exceptionally justified cases from a medical point of view once the child has turned 15.
A national commission comprised of health, law, psychology, sociology, and religion experts would have a significant role in the implementation of the law.
Also today, the government approved a 346 million kuna project envisaging the financing of medical institutions by 2009 and the improvement of health care on the islands.
The government was also informed about the implementation of the national strategy for the prevention of narcotics abuse in 2002 and 2003. Deputy Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said the figure of 18,500 registered addicts was not final and should be multiplied by five. She pointed to an increase in the number of drug casualties, which last year were 95, as well as the fact that there were 42 addicted mothers in 2003.
(EUR1 = 7.4 kuna)