Italy's Senate has passed a law on assisted reproduction that makes it a crime to freeze or destroy human embryos or to use donated sperm and eggs.

The new rules—which will need an additional, formal approval by the lower house but are expected to come into effect in early 2004—limit the number of oocytes that can be fertilised to three. They also state that all the embryos created must be transferred into the woman's womb.

Additionally they restrict the use of assisted reproduction techniques to sterile heterosexual couples in a stable …