Italians could once again use
extramarital donor sperm and eggs for artificial insemination as
of Thursday, the day a court ruling that lifted a ban went into
effect.
"As of today we're administering the practice in both our
private and public centers," said Filomena Gallo of the
Associazione Luca Coscioni, a leading association that promotes
the freedom of scientific research.
In April the Constitutional Court ruled that a couple's
right to have a child was inviolable even in the case of
sterility, overruling a 2004 ban on donor sperm and eggs that
did not come from a spouse.
The hot-button case of assisted-fertility treatment had
pitted Catholics against members of the scientific community who
had called for a wider review of the 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 could not use assisted-fertility
techniques.
According to Gallo, thousands of Italians have since
submitted requests for the procedure.
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