Politics
Thursday February 12, 2004
Italian Parliament Passes Restrictive IVF Law
Unlike Canadian bill, the Italian law will effectively restrict many morally offensive practices
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
ROME, February 12, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Italian IVF legislation has passed the second to last stage before being signed into law by the president. The bill, which has been working its way through the Italian legislative process since June 2002, has pleased pro-life opponents of artificial pro-creation with its restrictions.
The law will prohibit pre-implantation eugenic screening of embryos, and the freezing, cloning of or experimentation on human embryos. While it does not go far enough in putting a complete stop to in vitro fertilization, it limits the harm by restricting the practice which, up to now, has remained completely unregulated in Italy, as it has in most countries. Unlike the Canadian proposed legislation, it appears that the Italian law will effectively restrict many morally offensive practices.
The legislation was approved by the Italian Senate in December 2003 and was at that time criticized by the Vatican for allowing in vitro fertilization to continue. Bishop Elio Sgreccia, vice president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said that the law "does not reflect Catholic morality," Bishop Sgreccia, however, conceded that it could be praised for its real restrictions on the some of the more morally and socially dangerous practices like embryo freezing and the use of "donor" sperm and oocytes.
The law will impose fines of $363,000 to $726,000 for using donors, and 10- to 20-year jail terms and fines up to $1.21 million for doctors who try to clone humans. The bill was passed in the Chamber of Deputies late Tuesday 277-222, with three deputies abstaining.
Thus far, no detailed analysis of the Italian legislation is available to see if it suffers from the same type of flaws in wording and definitions that have rendered useless many other bills purporting to ban human cloning. The Canadian legislation, (formerly Bill C-13) also claims to ban cloning but upon close examination was found to be completely toothless because of errors in definitions. The bills claiming to prohibit cloning in the US, such as the Weldon-Brownback bill, also suffer from the same deficiencies in language, as do many in Europe.
Washington Times Coverage:
http://washingtontimes.com/world/20040211-100547-2985r.htm
Previous LifeSite Coverage:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/jun/02061201.html
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase out Lab Rats
- Ohio Supreme Court Allows Planned Parenthood to Conceal Abortion Records in Sexual Abuse Case
- LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message. Taking a few days off. LSN returns Monday July 6
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Pro-Life Groups Announce New Colorado Personhood Initiative
- Judge Puts Kibosh on DC Gay "Marriage" Referendum
- Al Franken Win Hands Supermajority to Senate Democrats
- Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' D&P Joins with Others to Denounce the "Natural Family" and "Family Rights"
- Financially Troubled Planned Parenthood of El Paso Closes Doors
- Abortion Linked to Subsequent Pre-Term Births, New Research Again Confirms
- New Orleans Homosexual Couple Ask Fed. Court to Overturn Marriage Amendment
- Slim Hope Of New Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Promoting Pro-Life, Pro-Family Issues
- Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Caught Involved in Homosexual Encounters
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Northern Ireland Politician Cleared of Wrongdoing after Reiterating Christian Teaching on Homosexual Acts
- UK Conservative Leader Speaks at Gay Pride Fundraiser
- More Letters to the Editor on Canadian Catholic Development and Peace Scandal (July 1)
- Letters to the Editor - Readers Respond to Development and Peace Scandal
- Watch This Dramatic New Video on Catholic Bishops Conference Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups
Most Read this Week
- Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex
- Famed Fr. Corapi Calls Canadian Bishops' Dissent from Humanae Vitae "Catastrophic"
- Pope: It is a Childish Faith to Oppose the Church Teaching on Life and Family
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- LifeSiteNews Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase Out Lab Rats
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Is Pro-Choice the New Pro-Life?
- Swedish Parents Won't Tell if Child is Boy or Girl as Gender Experiment
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.