Sara Dalla Costa discusses the legal aspects of assisted reproduction in Italy at a meeting in Moderna’s University of Law.

Moderna and Reggio Emilia’s University of Law Unimore, in collaboration with the Just Parent Project of the European Union, a meeting for the exchange of ideas between professionals from different disciplines related to assisted reproduction and law.

Sara Dalla Costa, lawyer specialising in biolaw and coordinator of Instituto Bernabeu Venice, participated in the closing day with a conference in which she highlighted several aspects that hinder the evolution of assisted reproduction in Italy. “The involvement of those in power is very necessary so that our law adapts to social evolution”, said Sara Dalla.

In her speech, she focused on three important aspects of reproductive medicine, which currently have no legal protection under Italian law. On the one hand, gamete donation, as there are plans to pass a law that would prohibit the commercialisation of gametes and embryos in the country, which “would put fertilisation processes at risk, as the minimum number of gametes required for all treatments does not exist in Italy,” she explained.

On the other hand, the legal status of the embryo, which is legally considered as a potential life, so that its destruction or use for scientific research purposes would be prohibited. And finally, access to assisted reproduction techniques for single women or homosexual couples. In Italy it is prohibited, which is “an obvious form of discrimination against those who do not have a partner or who do not adhere to the predominant sexual orientation”, she said, so that “these subjects have no choice but to travel abroad to undergo such techniques”.