Italy’s high court overturns donor gamete ban

Italy’s constitutional court overturned a ban on using donor sperm and eggs in fertility treatments, knocking down part of a divisive set of restrictions on assisted reproduction.

The court said in a statement the ban breached the constitution, without going into further detail, and lawyers in the case said the ruling was effective immediately.

Couples in predominantly Catholic Italy have launched a string of legal challenges to restrictions included in “Law 40”, passed by the then center-right government of Silvio Berlusconi in 2004.

Treatments such as artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization (IVF) have become increasingly popular across the Western world.

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But in Italy, they have been opposed by a conservative establishment influenced by the Catholic Church, which rejects non-traditional conception and opposes the discarding of embryos with defects, believing an embryo should be treated as a person from the moment of conception.

Read the full, original story: Italian court overturns divisive ban on donor eggs, sperm