title: [Literature review and state of the art of the Italian law on medically assisted reproduction].
abstract: This article analyzes the current situation of medically assisted reproduction in Italy after the promulgation of Law 40 in 2004. This law is actually completely different from the origin version. The controversial points like reproduction for couples who bear genetic diseases, prohibition of heterologous fertilization, cryoconservation of the embryos, obligation to perform just one and contemporaneous implant of all the embryos produced, are today definitively erased. This new situation is due to the jurisprudence of the Italian Courts but especially to the changes introduced by the European Court of Human Rights and by the questions of constitutionality raised by some Italian Courts. After analysis of the legislation, the views of various authors are compared, and the weaknesses and strong points of the law are considered from the point of view of legal medicine, science and bioethics. After ten years of operation of this law Italy has returned to a situation that existed before the law. In fact the old law was only full of prohibitions. Now is possible to do heterologous fertilization and this article photographs the current situation of hospitals for assisted procreation in Italy. The work also comments on procreative tourism, a direct consequence of this law, and on the status of women, who must be the subject and not the object of the legislation.
authors.affiliation: Cattedra di Medicina Legale, Scuola di Giurisprudenza, Università degli Studi di Camerino, Camerino.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ricci
authors.affiliation: Centro di Studio e di Ricerca di Bioetica dell'Università degli Studi di Brescia (con il contributo della Fondazione Poliambulanza) Dipartimento di Specialità Medico Chirurgiche, Scienze Radiologiche e Sanità Pubblica - Sezione di Sanità Pubblica e Scienze Umane - Medicina Legale, Brescia.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Delbon
authors.affiliation: Centro di Studio e di Ricerca di Bioetica dell'Università degli Studi di Brescia (con il contributo della Fondazione Poliambulanza) Dipartimento di Specialità Medico Chirurgiche, Scienze Radiologiche e Sanità Pubblica - Sezione di Sanità Pubblica e Scienze Umane - Medicina Legale, Brescia.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Conti
authors.affiliation: Scuola di Scienze del Farmaco e dei Prodotti della Salute, Università degli Studi di Camerino, Camerino, Italia.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sirignano
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D027724:Reproductive Techniques, Assisted / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*
keywords: Italian law; Literature review; Medically assisted reproduction