| Abstrakt | | The demographic changes going on in European countries are basically similar. At times when the global population is increasing, most European countries are, nevertheless, recording a negative trend. It is interesting that the same trend is also evident in the interruption of undesired pregancies. Apart from socio-economic changes in some European countries attempting to improve the demographically negative trends with immigration policy, only the number of children born with help of/by various in vitro fertilization techniques is increasing. From the 2 million children born owing to medically assisted techniques is increasing. From the 2 million children born owing to medically assisted reproduction techniques, as many as 1.2 million are born in Europe. In developed countries the share of thus conceived children from among all born represents a significant demographic shift in the number of newborns. Although no large demographic studies have been carried out, it seem that the problem of infertility is gaining a significant place also in national health policies. In fact, it can be expected that the frequency of sterility will keep increasing. The health policy should increase the availability of these methods of treatment, it should ensure the protection of patient rights by introducing the necessary laws and regulations, and the supervision of centers for medically assisted reproduction. At first glance, the impact of assisted reproduction techniques (ART) on fertility seems minimal, it is, however, comparable to other measures of population policy. It is, therefore, neither considered in nor excluded from the package, the "policy mix" of different approaches to the solution of this problem. Analyses of the trends of demographic changes ensuing from ART in Denmark and other countries clearly show that its effect on the birth rate is changing the structure of the population. (Abstract truncated at 2000 characters).
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