BMJ  2006;333:934 (4 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7575.934-a

News

Italian court upholds ban on pre-implantation diagnosis

Milan

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A decision by the Italian Constitutional Court last week has provoked debate in Italy about the restrictive law on assisted reproduction, which was approved in 2004. The law limits in vitro fertilisation procedures to sterile couples and bans pre-implantation diagnosis and embryo freezing except in exceptional circumstances. It also bans doctors from discarding any embryos produced by in vitro fertilisation (BMJ 2004;328: 9[Free Full Text], BMJ 2004;328: 1334[Free Full Text], and BMJ 2005;330: 1405[Free Full Text]).

The court turned down an appeal from a couple who were having in vitro fertilisation and who were at high risk of having a child with thalassaemia. The couple did not want to have an embryo replaced without having it tested for the disease.

Giovanni Monni, who heads the gynaecology department of the Ospedale Microcitemico in Cagliari, Sardinia, said, "The woman was informed about the law. When . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

Italians fail to overturn restrictive reproduction law

Fabio Turone
BMJ 2005 330: 1405. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

In brief
BMJ 2004 328: 1334. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Meadow faces GMC over evidence given in child death cases

Owen Dyer
BMJ 2004 328: 9. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Online poll

Find out more >>