Two months after Italy's
Constitutional Court lifted a ban on the use of donor sperm and
eggs contained in a controversial law limiting
assisted-fertility treatments, proponents said Tuesday that by
mid-June, these treatments should be accessible in Italy.
Both public and private clinics will be able to offer
fertilization treatment by mid-June, as the official journal of
the courts is publishing the April 9 ruling by the
Constitutional Court.
That struck down parts of the 2004 reproductive law, called
law 40, that banned third-party donors in assisted fertility
treatments.
The entire law is now under court review.
"Like it was before 2004, it will be lawful egg donations,
while any fertile man can donate his sperm", said Filomena
Gallo, secretary of the Luca Coscioni organization, which
promotes freedom of scientific research.
A related legal hurdle will be dealt with on June 18 when
the European Court of Human Rights hears the thorny question of
using embryos for scientific research.
The hot-button case of assisted fertility treatment had
pitted Catholics against members of the scientific community who
have called for a wider review of the 2004 reproductive law
which among other things banned screening of embryos for
abnormalities or genetic disorders even for couples with a
family history of genetic disease.
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in 2012
had already rejected the law, saying it went against two
provisions in its convention for the protection of human rights.
Under the law, which was originally passed by a cross-party
alliance of Catholics, single parents, same-sex couples and
women beyond child-bearing age cannot use assisted-fertility
techniques.
Law 40 also bans embryos from being frozen or used for
scientific research and prohibits human cloning.
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