Selecting embryos for IVF not a crime says top court (2)

(ANSA) - Rome, November 11 - Italy's Constitutional Court on Wednesday ruled that a ban on selecting embryos for fertility treatments to avoid the transmission of some serious diseases was illegitimate.
    Screening and selecting embryos for grave genetically transmitted diseases is not a crime, the court said.
    However, the Court upheld a ban on suppressing embryos carrying such diseases.
    The Court was ruling on objections raised to Italy's Law 40 approved in 2004, which bans assisted fertility treatments using eggs or sperm from anonymous donors, IVF treatments for same-sex couples, surrogate motherhood and suppressing embryos. 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.
    Italy's Constitutional Court in April 2014 lifted the ban on anonymous donor IVF.