Cap. 524 Art. 2Interpretation.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires:

"Authority" means the Embryo Protection Authority established by article 3; "the Council" means the Medical Council established by article 9 of the Health Care Professions Act;

"Directive" means the Commission Directive 2004/23/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March, 2004 on setting standards of quality and safety for the donation, procurement, testing, processing, preservation, storage and distribution of human tissues and cells;

"donor" means a third party who donates germ line cells to be used in medically assisted procreation: Provided that donations by an ascendant to a descendant, descendant to an ascendant, from sibling to sibling, whether of the full or half-blood, shall not be permissible; "embryo" means the human organism that results from the fertilisation of a human egg cell by a human sperm cell which is capable of developing and shall further include each totipotent cell removed from a human embryo or otherwise produced, that is assumed to be able to divide and to develop as a human being under the appropriate conditions; "embryo adoption" means that process established in this Act whereby embryos that are not transferred are gratuitously donated to the prospective parent or prospective parents: Provided that this term does not have the same meaning and shall not produce the same effects of "adoption" under the

Civil Code and the term "adoptive" shall be construed accordingly; "embryo donation" means the transfer of an embryo resulting from gametes (spermatozoa and oocytes) that did not originate from the prospective parent or prospective parents; "germ line cells" means all egg and sperm cells which may lead to the resultant human being; "health care professional" shall have the same meaning assigned to it by article 2 of the Health Care Professions Act; "medically assisted procreation" means all treatments or procedures that include the in vitro handling of human oocytes,

*see article 1(2) as originally enacted, and Legal Notice 455 of 2012. "medical practitioner" means a person licensed under the Health Care Professions Act to practice as a medical practitioner;

"Minister" means the Minister responsible for health; "prospective parent" means any person regardless of gender or sexual orientation, who has attained the age of majority and is a receiver or user of the medically assisted procreation techniques regulated under this Act;

"Protocol" means the Protocol established in writing by the Authority and brought into force by regulations made by the Minister under this Act, as published in the Gazette;

"tissue establishment" means a facility or a unit of a hospital or another body where the activities of processing, preservation, storage or distribution of human tissues and cells for human application are undertaken and it may also be responsible for procurement and, or testing of tissues and cells.