Law and Bioethics – medically assisted procreation

The expression medically assisted procreation refers to all the methods, whether surgical, hormonal, pharmacological or other, which allow individuals to be helped to procreate. These methods include assisted fertilization, a procreative technique consisting in the in vitro fertilization of the egg by the spermatozoon. This technique differs from in vivo fertilization where the meeting of the gametes takes place inside the human body. The Italian legislator has published the law that regulates medically assisted procreation, setting limits to the same as for heterologous fertilization. Limit and prohibition on heterologous fertilization lapsed following various rulings of the Constitutional Court which expressed the unconstitutionality of the law due to infringement of inviolable rights such as: freedom of self-determination and right to health. In favor of couples who make use of medically assisted procreation, the Italian State, in application of constitutional rights, bioethics and human rights, has expanded the possibility of accessing this form of conception, reducing the cases of exclusion.