Human rights and reproductive choices in the case-law of Italian and European courts.

Abstract

The major issues regarding human fertilisation and embryology are addressed in a comparative perspective and in the light of relevant rulings of the European Court for Human Rights: the relationship between artificial procreation and parental responsibilities, the legal nature of the unborn child, the human right to reproduce and to have a healthy child. The article focuses on the key data of the latest Italian regulation regarding assisted conception, especially compared with British law. Particular attention is paid to the contribution given by recent European decisions to the protection of new human rights. National and international judgements ensure the right to private life and to health that are not always guaranteed by law. Converging developments in case-law panorama make the right to have children, to responsible procreation, to information about medical treatments, much less disharmonic realities than the Member States legislation suggests.