Italy Ends Embryo Screening Ban

Italy’s health minister Wednesday ended the predominantly Catholic country’s ban on screening embryos in assisted fertility cases.

The action taken by outgoing Health Minister Livia Turco comes just before Italy’s new center-right government takes over, ANSA reported Wednesday.

Under the new rules, Italian couples in which the man has a sexually transmitted disease such as HIV or hepatitis B and C will also be allowed to participate in in-vitro fertilization programs, the Italian news agency reported.

Turco said the new guidelines were in response to several court cases that overruled sections of a 2004 law that imposed narrow restrictions on assisted fertility procedures. The law, passed by Parliament on the strength of a coalition of Catholic lawmakers, had outlawed the screening of embryos for abnormalities or genetic disorders, including for couples with a history of genetic disease.