Almost 500 embryos stored at
controversial fertility doctor Severino Antinori's Milan clinic
should be returned to their rightful owners after his alleged
theft of embryos from a Spanish nurse, a court said Monday.
But prosecutors said that "in a not insignificant amount of
cases it is hard to tell who the mothers and fathers are" since
they were bought and sold rather than being acquired in a
non-mercenary way according to Italy's controversial assisted
fertility law.
Antinori was indicted last summer on charges of of forcibly
removing eight eggs from a Spanish patient at his Milan clinic,
the Clinica Matris.
Antinori, 71, was arrested May 13 at Rome's Fiumicino
Airport following a complaint by the 24-year-old nurse, who was
being treated for an ovarian cyst.
The woman told police she was bound, sedated, forced to
undergo removal of her eggs and deprived of her cell phone
throughout the procedure.
Antinori has accused the nurse of being a member of the
so-called Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group.
"She was in ISIS. She alleged that (crime) because I
discovered her," Antinori told Italian TV.
Asked about the signs of violence the nurse showed, the
gynaecologist said she did it to herself.
The judge who wrote his arrest warrant said Antinori
displayed "indifference" to the victim's dignity, that he was
"clouded by the goal of making money" and that he was a danger
to society because he might commit similar crimes.
Antinori's two secretaries who were placed under house
arrest were described as "willing to do anything to satisfy
their employer's wishes".
"The urgent need to obtain suitable eggs that could be
immediately implanted in clients' uteruses for the exclusive
purpose of maximising profit" is the "motive" that allegedly
drove Antinori and his two secretaries to "unscrupulous
behaviors" including "violent deprivation of personal freedom",
the judge wrote.
Antinori shot to worldwide fame in 1994 when his pioneering
techniques made a 63-year-old woman become the oldest ever to
have given birth. He called the indictment "a persecution".
The trial began on November 17.
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