By Grégor Puppinck, LifeNews.com
On June 7th 2011, the second section of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has communicated to the Italian government the case Rosetta Costa and Walter Pavan v. Italy (no. 54270/10) challenging the ban of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis in Italy.
In collaboration with the ‘Movimento per la vita italiana’ and fifty-two Italian MPs including Messrs. Rocco Buttiglione, Carlo Casini and Luca Volonte, the ECLJ has been granted leave by the Court on August 31st 2011 to intervene in the proceedings and to submit written observations.
This case, brought before the Court on September 20th 2010, concerns an Italian couple, asymptomatic carriers of cystic fibrosis, wishing to resort to pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to conceive in vitro and artificially select an embryo that doesn’t carry cystic fibrosis. They claim their right to respect private and family life has been violated, because law 40/2004 does not allow them to resort to PGD. Furthermore, in comparison to sterile or infertile couples and to couples where the man carries a sexually transmitted disease (such as AIDS and the hepatitis B and C viruses), they believe they are being discriminated against, as law 40 would enable these couples to resort to assisted reproduction (but not to PGD). . . .
You can read the entire article by Grégor Puppinck, the Director of the European Centre for Law and Justice, here.