title: Mifepristone in Italy: the case of a drug trapped between ethics and clinical practice.
abstract: In Italy mifepristone is not yet marketed. Gynaecologists in our hospital asked to use this medication as a less traumatic method for voluntary abortions. We followed the standard procedure defined by the Italian Health Ministry (IMH) for purchasing drugs from abroad but encountered several unexpected barriers. Starting from this case, this paper is aimed at identifying these barriers which we found to be not only professional, but also ethical, religious and moral.
authors.affiliation: Pharmacy Department, Azienda USL11 Empoli, 50053 Tuscany, Italy. r.banfi@usl11.toscana.it
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Banfi
authors.forename: Eleonora
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pavone
authors.forename: Rita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cerri
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Menichetti
mesh_terms: D000021:Abortifacient Agents, Steroidal; D000028:Abortion, Induced / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D003281:Contraceptives, Postcoital; D017277:Drug Approval / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D015735:Mifepristone; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D011247:Pregnancy; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D012936:Social Medicine / Q000639:trends
chemical_list: D000021:Abortifacient Agents, Steroidal; D003281:Contraceptives, Postcoital; D015735:Mifepristone