Over 217,000 children have been born
in Italy through medically assisted reproduction (MAR) since the
approval 20 years ago of legislation regulating fertility
treatment, the Italian National Institute of Health (ISS) said
on Friday.
The number of treatments carried out each year has doubled, as
have pregnancy rates, and procedures using cryopreserved embryos
have also risen sharply, according to data collected by the
National Registry of Medically Assisted Procreation, established
at the ISS by Law 40/2004 regulating assisted fertility in Italy
and which began its activities in 2005.
The figures have been released to mark the 20th anniversary on
February 19 of the approval of the law, which was drafted by the
then centre-right government and voted by some centrist members
of the opposition with support from the Church, and contained
some of the most stringent rules in Europe on assisted fertility
at the time.
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