On saturday, 7th February around 4000 people protested in Bologna, Italy, against the new italian law that puts severe limitations on artificial insemination and genetic & embryologic research. In Italy, the use of biotechnological methods for giving birth to a child is only consented to spouses or heterosexual couples living together. Based on an unclear and undefined ‘bio-ethical’ model, promoted by the vatican, an italian woman can’t receive any sperm cell but the ones from her husband or ‘fixed’ partner. The law openly discriminates singles, homosexuals, infertile individuals and persons suffering from HIV or genetic diseases, in their desire for having a child. With Saturday’s demonstration in Bologna, a national campaign of protest has been launched against a law that brings Italy back to the times of inquisition and fascism.
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While throughout Europe thousands of infertile and homosexual couples resort to spermbanks, surrogate mothers and in-vitro fertilization, the Italian parliament voted law 1514 that limits artificial insemination and openly denies the diversity of contemporary forms of cohabitation. The main injustices and risks of this new law were discussed during a series of seminars that preceded the national manifestation of 7th February in Bologna, Italy :
Punishability of the desire for having a child
Huge penalties (200.000-600.000 euro) are laid down by law 1514 for
artificial
fertilizations that use a sperm cel or egg that doesn’t
originate from
one of the spouses or partners living together. Doctors that venture
to organize
a sperm bank or to freeze embryos risk a penalty from
600.000-1.000.000 euro
and the denial of practicing their profession during a period from 3
months
until two years.
Discrimination of infertile people and patients
of hereditable diseases
Heterosexual couples with one of both partners suffering from
infertility or
a hereditable disease are the biggest group of people that resort to
artificial
fertilization. But the law doesn’t permit the use of a sperm
cell coming
from any other man than the husband or partner. Likewise, the
implantation
of an egg inside the uterus of a surrogate mother is legally
impossible,
because the law forces the surrogate mother to recognize the child
legally.
Discrimination of singles and attack on the gay
community
The law denies the social evolution towards other forms of
cohabitation (homosexual
couples, singles,..) than the classical man-wife family. It is
obvious
that without the sperm from another man or the womb from a
surrogate mother
no
single or homosexual man or woman can ever become a parent. But
the law
doesn’t
only discriminate the desire for a child of the gay community. The
law
is also a legal attack on the recognition of the gay
community.
Sergio Lo Giudice (ArciGay, un PACS avanti, Bologna)
:
For the first time in Italian history a law determines that a
couple consists
out of two persons from different sexes (Art. 5). This explicit
definition
is a first step in the repression of the Italian gay community. Before
this
law repression was left to moral institutions (like the catholic
church), but
art.5 of law 1514 gives now a legal basis for repression on gays. The
explicit
formulation of law 1514 can’t be a coincidence, because gays
recently
expressed their strong wish to be legally recognized as a couple (at
is the
case e.g. in Belgium).
Freezing of genetic research
Nino Guglielmino (Clinica Hera, Catania):
The ban on genetic manipulation and cloning of human cells freezes
the chance of recovery of about 10 million italians suffering from
diseases
that might
be cured through genetic research.
Secularization
The law refers to a ‘bio-ethical’ model that isn’t
specified
but clearly amounts to the vision of the catholic church on the
composition
of a family, reproduction, artificial fertilization, cloning, use of
condoms
and abortion:
- a (married) couple only consists out of a male and a female partner
- before artificial fertilization can be admitted, the couple is forced to make love without condom during the 12 months that precede the treatment
- during the treatment a maximum of three embryos can be produced and all three (also eventually unhealthy embryos) must be inserted into the uterus
All this endangers the laical character of the
Italian state and thus the
constitutionality of the Italian Republic. Technically, legislation
can’t
be based on the subjective consciousness of one single group in
society, in
this case the catholic church. The most flagrant infringement is the
‘conscientious
objection’ that the medical staff can exert, even if the
artificial fertilization
is accepted under the conditions of law 1514. This paragraph shows
that, as
the catholic church continuously denies the social reality, it needs
legislation
to give her ideology a chance to survive. Social reality though is so
rich
of different affective relations between persons from the same or
different
sexes or generations, that no law will ever be able to
‘legislate’ them.
Attack on the law on abortion
The law defines the legal recognition of the embryo as a juridical
object and
thus creates a leading case to attack italy’s law on
abortion.
Confirmation of patriarchy
The family model (family with 1 man, 1 woman and their children) of
law 1514
hides a statemodel that doesn’t want to spend money on nursery
and
leaves childcare completely to the family and especially the wife
(according
to the law a woman has to accept to be the legal mother of the child
that
she gave birth to after a artificial fertilization).
AntagonismoGay (Bologna):
Through law 1514 the patriarchal society model is again confirmed:
a woman only receives a legal right on motherhood in relation to a
man. Central
to
patriarchy is also the legal regulation of the uncertainty of
fatherhood within
a marriage: the law takes any doubt away because the male partner is
obliged
to accept paternity.
Fascism?
Like many other laws that have been voted during the Berlusconi
government,
also law 1514 seems to contain hidden forms of racism and fascism.
Angelo Aiello (Association Amica Cicogna):
Also mussolini’s law didn’t allow the donorship of
embryos. Why
are these kind of laws voted in our multicultural society? Is it to
‘protect’ the
Italian race ?!!?
Privatisation of the desire for having a child
Law 1514 treats the desire for having a child and artificial
fertilization
as if they were luxury products, just like cosmetic operations.
Millions
of people want a child through artificial fertilization and the
market is
smelling a business of billions. The Berlusconian government and law
1514
shows the market the way to the privatization of the desire for
having a
child. The laws contains a list of the (private) institutions that
receive
the permission to engage in fertilization treatments. Not a single
budget
has been reserved for people that cannot pay for the treatment.
