Fertility experts meeting at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) in Vienna have strongly criticised the contents of a bill to regulate assisted reproduction and related techniques that is currently before the lower house of the Italian parliament.
The Italian bill has been described as 'unethical' and fertility specialists from other countries have concerns that the provisions will put both women and babies at risk. Italian MPs have decided that embryo freezing should be banned, although eggs and sperm would be able to be frozen. However, thawing and using frozen embryos is currently a more effective procedure than using frozen eggs.
Italian MPs have also decided that the maximum number of eggs that can be fertilised is three, with all resulting embryos being transferred to a woman at the same time. This would increase the risk of giving birth to twins and triplets. Embryos would only be able to be created with the intention of causing a pregnancy.
Professor Hans Evers, speaking from Vienna said that 'cryopreservation of oocytes has shown promising results at one Italian centre, but is still an experimental procedure, and the limited number of procedures performed so far is insufficient to establish its safety'. He went on to say that it would be 'unethical' to subject women to such an untested procedure, where safety issues could still be of concern. Other fertility specialists meeting at the ESHRE conference warned that the new laws, if passed by the Italian Senate, might encourage 'reproductive tourism', with Italian women travelling to other countries for safer and more effective treatment.
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