Court Throws Out Law 40 Embryos Can Be Tested Court rules that ban on freezing embryos is unconstitutional. Bioethics committee rejects restrictions on resuscitating newborns Judges annulled part of guidelines and asked consultative committee to appraise their legitimacy
ROME - Only a ministerial decree is needed now to make the change official but in practical terms, the ban on selecting embryos in Italy no longer exists. It has been swept aside by a ruling from the Lazio regional administrative court (TAR), which upheld appeals presented by several associations. Judges decided to repeal some of the guidelines to the law on artificial fertilisation on the grounds of "excess of power". The section concerned prevents sterile couples with hereditary genetic diseases from finding out by DNA testing whether their test-tube embryos are carriers of the same condition. Overall, the guidelines are described as "illegitimate" and rejected. The TAR also queries the consultative committee about the legitimacy of the limit of three - not yet implanted - oocytes to be fertilised and the freezing of the extra embyos. Starting today, diagnosis is again possible in Italy, as it was until three years ago. The Scienza e Vita [Science and Life] committee disagrees: "We are not embracing this", says chair Bruno Dallapiccola. "There is no sign of a green light in the ruling. In any case, we are talking about a diagnostic examination that damages the embryo". Christian Democrate (UDC) Luca Volontè shares this view. Health minister Livio Turco's decree is awaited to throw light on the subject. The ruling on artificial fertilisation is the last, decisive blow to one of the most controversial bans and one that had already been challenged by courts in Cagliari and Florence, which authorised pre-implant diagnosis for two couples. The same right has now been extended to all aspiring parents. The TAR appeal was presented by a group of patients' associations and infertility treatment centres. "This sentence also recognises the unconstitutional nature of the ban on freezing embryos imposed by Law 40", explains the WARM association's lawyer, Gianluigi Pellegrino. "But the consultative committee has the last word". The law's current guidelines - which do not prohibit the diagnosis of embryos, one of the key points - bear the signature of former health minister, Girolamo Sirchia. Ms Turco's modification decree should be published in the next few days. According to unofficial sources, the section on diagnosis reflects the content of the rulings. In addition, selection techniques are made accessible to HIV-positive couples. The ruling has split the world of politics. Aporoval has come from the Democratic Party (PD), the Greens and Communist Refoundation (PRC) while Forza Italia's Margherita Boniver and Stefania Prestigiacomo have expressed satisfaction. On the other hand, Isabella Bertolini, the deputy leader of the FI group in the Chamber of Deputies, said that "laws are changed in Parliament, not in court". Giulia Bongiorno of National Alliance (AN) commented: "I welcome the ruling but a law safeguarding embryos is indispensable". Gynaecologist Carlo Flamigni said: "The magistrates have done what our frightened, incompetent politicians ought to have accomplished". Tomorrow, the national bioethics committee will present a document on another ethically sensitive subject, the treatment of very low weight premature newborns, that clashes with the one just drafted by a ministerial committee. The bioethics experts label "unacceptable, as well as scientifically dubious, the claim to identify an abstract threshold after which all attempts to revive the child are denied a priori". There should be no terms or restrictions on being born, according to the bioethics committee, which does add that treatment should never "assume the characteristics of futile medical treatment". The ministerial working party had indicated a threshold of twenty-two weeks. In their expert opinion, a newborn is capable of independent life from the twenty-third week. Margherita De Bac English translation by Giles Watson www.watson.it 24 gennaio 2008 http://www.corriere.it/english/articoli/2008/01_Gennaio/24/index.shtml [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
