protected in different international human rights instruments. 236 For its part, the United Nations Human Rights Committee has indicated that the possibility of procreating is part of the right to found a family. 237 146. Second, the right to private life is related to: (i) reproductive autonomy, and (ii) access to reproductive health services, which includes the right to have access to the medical technology necessary to exercise this right. The right to reproductive autonomy is also recognized in Article 16(e) of the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, according to which women enjoy the right “to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children and to have access to the information, education and means that enable them to exercise these rights.” This right is violated when the means by which a woman can exercise the right to control her fertility are restricted. 238 Thus, the protection of private life includes respect for the decisions both to become a mother or a father, and a couple’s decision to become genetic parents. 147. Third, the Court emphasizes that, in the context of the right to personal integrity, it has analyzed some of the situations that cause particular distress and anxiety to the individual, 239 as well as some serious impacts of the lack of medical care or problems of accessibility to certain health procedures. 240 In the European sphere, case law has defined the relationship between the right to private life and the protection of physical and mental integrity. The European Court of Human Rights has indicated that, although the European Convention on Human Rights does not guarantee the right to a specific level of medical care as such, the right to private life includes a person’s physical and mental integrity, and that the State also has the positive obligation to ensure this right to its citizens. 241 Consequently, the rights to private life and to personal integrity are also directly and immediately linked to health care. The lack of legal safeguards that take reproductive health into consideration can result in a serious impairment of the right to reproductive autonomy and freedom. Therefore, there is a connection between personal autonomy, reproductive freedom, and physical and mental integrity. 236 Cf. Paragraph 1 of Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights establishes the right of men and women to marry and to found a family, and paragraph 3 establishes that “the family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.” Likewise, Article 23(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights recognizes the right of men and women of marriageable age to marry and to found a family. 237 Cf. Human Rights Committee, Compilation of general comments and general recommendations adopted by Human Rights Treaty Bodies, General Comment No. 19: Article 23 (The Family) adopted at the thirty-ninth session, U.N. Doc. HRI/GEN/1/Rev.7, (1990), para. 5 (“The right to found a family implies, in principle, the possibility to procreate and live together”). 238 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation No. 24 (Women and Health), 2 February 1999, paras. 21 and 31(b). 239 Cf. Case of the Yean and Bosico Girls v. Dominican Republic. Judgment of September 8, 2005. Series C No. 130, paras. 205 and 206, and Case of Furlan and family v. Argentina, para. 250. 240 Cf. Case of Vélez Loor v. Panama. Preliminary objections, merits, reparations and costs. Judgment of November 23, 2010. Series C No. 218, paras. 220, and Case of Diaz Peña v. Venezuela, para. 137. 241 Cf. ECHR, Case of Glass v. United Kingdom (No. 61827/00), Judgment of 9 March 2004, paras. 74 to 83; Case of Yardımcı v. Turkey (No. 25266/05), Judgment of 5 January 2010. Final, 28 June 2010, paras. 55 and 56, and Case of P. and S. v. Poland (No. 57375/08), Judgment of 30 October 2012, para. 96. In this last case, the European Court of Human Rights declared that State have “a positive obligation to secure to their citizens the right to effective respect for their physical and psychological integrity [which] may involve the adoption of measures including the provision of an effective and accessible means of protecting the rights to respect for private life”; see also ECHR, Case of McGinley and Egan v. United Kingdom (No. 10/1997/794/995-996), Judgment of 9 June 1998, para. 101.