Ban on donor sperm, egg unconstitutional

(ANSA) - Rome, April 8 - A ban on the use of donor sperm and eggs, which is part of Italy's controversial law limiting assisted-fertility treatments, has been struck down as invalid by the Constitutional Court, ANSA sources said Wednesday.
    The ruling also found the punishment for breaching so-called law 40 - a 300,000-600,000-euro fine - was unconstitutional. "It was an outdated ban that penalized and discriminated...against the right to procreate, as is sanctioned in national legislation and international declarations," said a statement from Filomena Gallo and Gianni Baldini, the lawyers representing the couple who brought the case before the court. The law has already been rejected by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in 2012, which said that Italy had infringed upon two provisions of its convention for the protection of human rights.
    The issues surrounding reproductive rights and laws is a hot political potato in overwhelmingly Catholic Italy.