Tough law on fertility treatments approved by Italian lawmakers.

2004 MAR 4 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A law virtually banning the freezing of embryos and the use of sperm and egg donors and surrogate mothers as well as barring gays and singles from receiving artificial procreation assistance won final approval in Parliament February 10, 2004, as Catholic lawmakers from both the right and left joined forces.

The bill was passed in the Chamber of Deputies in secret voting February 10, 2004, evening by a vote of 277 to 222, with three deputies abstaining. The Senate approved it in December.

After the law is signed by Italy's president and its text published in the government gazette, the legislation will go into force, effectively spelling the end of the country's long-held reputation of the "Wild West" for artificial procreation.

The Chamber president, Pier Ferdinando Casini, hailed the bill's passage, saying lawmakers "courageously took up the responsibility of making a law on such delicate issue."

Legislative whips had told their forces they were free to "vote their conscience," and many Catholics from the center-left, including opposition leader Francesco Rutelli, lent support to the crackdown on Italy's virtually unregulated field of artificial procreation.

Two women from a Communist party wore white masks to show their protest as their colleagues voted.

Some critics said the law was hypocritical because wealthy couples will be able to travel abroad for such widely accepted techniques as insemination with donated sperm or freezing of embryos, which can often help women avoid more rounds of hormone treatment to stimulate egg production needed for in vitro fertilization.