Sara Dalla Costa, from Instituto Bernabeu Venice, will present a study about the gametes and embryos importation to Italy at the ESHRE.

Bio-legal lawyer Sara Dalla Costa, coordinator of Instituto Bernabeu in Venice, will present a study at the ESHRE congress, which will begin on July 7^th in Amsterdam, on the transport of human gametes and embryos from abroad to Italy to alleviate the shortage of local donors.

After legalisation of heterologous IVF in Italy in 2014, gamete procurement remains a problem, Dalla explains. This forces public clinics and hospitals to rely on foreign gamete banks. “The cross-border transport of biological material raises bioethical issues such as the safety and quality of transfers, their regulation and supervision, informed consent, and fairness and equity in access to reproductive techniques,” she explains.

The study reviews European and Italian regulations on the circulation of human tissues and cells. Directive 2004/23/EC seeks to regulate the use of human biological reproductive material, promoting donation and establishing uniform standards of quality and safety in the EU. Subsequent directives, such as (EU) 2015/566, specifically address gamete transfer within and outside the EU borders. However, draft law no. 76 of 22/03/2023 explicitly prohibits the commercialisation of gametes and embryos.

Therefore, “if it were to be approved and interpreted as an absolute ban on the procurement of gametes from foreign banks, it would create a legal paradox: heterologous IVF would be legal, but its effective practice would be impossible in Italy, generating a significant setback,” says Sara Dalla.