5 24. The petitioner contends by prohibiting in vitro fertilization in Costa Rica, which like other treatments for infertility, is an internationally accepted medical technique, articles 1 and 24 of the American Convention are being violated by virtue fact that persons who can only reproduce by using this technique are being discriminated against and accorded unequal treatment. The petitioner alleges further that the State’s decision to prohibit the practice of in vitro fertilization creates a discriminatory situation among persons with reproductive disabilities. 25. In their communication to the IACHR, the alleged victims stated the following: “While for biological reasons, nature denies about 10% of all couples worldwide the right to be parents, a misguided Costa Rican court ruling has denied those couples in our country who suffer this misfortune, any possibility of assisted reproductive fulfillment, thereby creating an unfair disadvantage and discrimination with respect to the intent and practice of this medical treatment, which is now accepted in most countries and on all continents.” 26. As for the October 15, 2008 ruling delivered by the Superior Contentious Administrative Law Court 5 on the case brought by Ileana Henchoz (one of the alleged victims in the present case) seeking a declaratory judgment, the petitioner adds that the possibility of getting a favorable result by fertilizing a single egg, which is what the Superior Contentious Administrative Law Court prescribed, “is ridiculous” because the scientific literature has established that the success rate when just one egg is fertilized is not even 10%. 6 The petitioner therefore contends that the ruling in question merely confirmed the absolute ban on that practice. 27. According to the petitioner, in every society the inability to reproduce causes enormous suffering to those so afflicted. Reproductive dysfunction creates a terrible sense of inferiority in the couple. The health of those who are unable to have biological children can be affected. Incurable sterility takes its toll on the couple. In trying to come to terms with the inability to reproduce, each member of a couple wants to assign “blame” either to one’s partner or to oneself, all of which can lead to depression, a rejection of one’s partner, abandonment, etc. The petitioner asserts further that the longer one waits, the less chance there is of undergoing any medical treatment that will enable the couple to have a child of their own. In testimony before the IACHR, one of the alleged victims said the following: [a]s a human being, I yearned for and wanted something to fulfill a part of my being, my partner’s being and my life. In Costa Rica, that ‘something’ came to be regarded as illegal, something unhealthy, something negative in every respect. I couldn’t understand it. This ruling forced me to look for help abroad. Thank God, I was able to get the treatment, but it came at a heavy emotional and financial cost abroad. How can I explain to you what it means for someone to try to have a baby, a baby to care for and love with all one’s heart and in so doing discover the reason why one goes on living […] I can’t understand why I and so many others were being denied this with such inconceivable cruelty. We were not just denied this opportunity at life; instead, what we wanted was depicted as something criminal. It’s not simply that I don’t understand this; I am offended, offended as a human being labeled as someone out to commit a crime, when in fact all I want 5 While the petitioner refers to this body as the Superior Contentious Administrative Law Court, the Commission’s understanding is that he is referring to the Superior Court of Accounts for Contentious Administrative and Civil Proceedings. 6 The petitioner cites as evidence the opinion of physician Gerardo Escalante, National Director of the Costa Rican Infertility Institute, National Director of Postgraduate University Studies in Maternal/Fetal Medicine of the University of Costa Rica, Professor in the School of Medicine of the University of Costa Rica, Chief of Obstetrics at the Hospital Calderón Guardia, the Costa Rican Social Security Institute, and the Annual Report that the Inter-American Juridical Committee submitted to the OAS General Assembly on January 23, 2001 (OEA/Ser.G CP/doc. 3406/01).