The battle on assisted reproduction and prenatal diagnosis in Italy took a new turn last week, when the gynaecologist Giovanni Monni, head of the obstetrics and gynaecology department in the Ospedale Microcitemico in Cagliari, Sardinia, was ordered by the local court to provide preimplantation genetic testing to a couple carrying the gene for β thalassaemia, which is common on the island.

Dr Monni, the current president of the Italian Association of Hospital Gynaecologists, had unwillingly obeyed the controversial law approved in 2004, which, through guidelines, forbids preimplantation genetic diagnosis, even though he personally supported the couple's request for it (BMJ 2004;328:9, doi: 10.1136/bmj.328.7430.9). “I am very glad of the court's decision,” he told the BMJ.

The law contains several …