European court overturns preimplantation testing ban

The European Court of Human Rights has overturned Italy’s ban on preimplantation diagnosis of embryos for couples seeking to have a baby through in vitro fertilisation.

The case was brought by a couple who wanted to ensure that their second child was born without cystic fibrosis after their first was diagnosed with the disease. Italian law currently only allows for diagnosis during pregnancy.

The ban on preimplantation genetic testing was part of a law on assisted reproduction, introduced in 2004, which ruled that assisted reproduction was only available to infertile heterosexual couples. The same law ruled that it …