Article 1 of the Saudi Fertility Units Law

This is the definitions article, which explains what is meant by the terms that recur in the Law unless the context requires otherwise. The most prominent are:

• The Minister and the Ministry: the Minister of Health and the Ministry of Health.
• Fertilization, embryo and infertility treatment unit: any medical unit, government or private, that carries out these procedures, whether independent or part of a health institution.
• The supervision committee: the committee responsible for supervising matters of fertilization, embryos and infertility treatment.
• Infertility: a delay in pregnancy for a couple of more than 12 months within an existing marital relationship.
• Sperm: the man's semen, and the zygote: the egg fertilized by the husband's sperm cell.
• Embryo: the fertilized egg divided into two or more cells before the organs form, that is, in the first two weeks.
• Ovulation induction: giving medication to induce multiple ovulation in the ovary.
• Artificial insemination: preparing the husband's sperm cells, concentrating them in the laboratory and injecting them into the wife's uterus.
• In vitro fertilization (test-tube baby): fertilizing the wife's eggs, after they are retrieved, with the husband's semen in the laboratory, then returning the embryos or zygote to her uterus after confirming proper division.
• Micro-injection: injecting the husband's sperm cell into the gel-like substance of the wife's egg in the laboratory, then returning the embryos after confirming proper division.
• Micromanipulation: microscopic procedures on eggs, sperm cells or embryos to carry out tests or study the genetic chromosomes and the like.

Note that the definitions themselves tie these procedures to the husband and wife. Article 2 then permits medical intervention to treat infertility resulting from reduced fertility or a treatable medical problem on the basis of a medical report.