The number of Italian couples going abroad to benefit from assisted fertility techniques has jumped fourfold since Italy adopted a law strictly restricting the use of these techniques, a new study found.
Since the law was passed in February 2004, the number of recorded trips abroad by couples seeking medical help to have children has risen from 1,066 to 4,173, according to a report from Procreative Tourism Observatory (Otp) and the Cecos planned parenthood association.
The study focused on 27 assisted fertility centers in ten countries where a "significant increase" in the number of Italians seeking help had been recorded.
However, according to Otp Chairman Andrea Borini, "many of these couples changed their minds either because their expectations could not be met or because they found themselves caught up in what has become a business venture".
Borini explained some couples found that they could not be helped, while others were unhappy with the hospital structures or high costs.
Spain was the preferred country for those seeking assisted fertility and the seven clinics there monitored in the report said that in the past three years the number of Italian patients has jumped from 60 to 1,365 and Italians represented between 10% to 50% of their patients.
The main advantages Spain offered included an excellent organization for procreation tourism, Italian or Italian-speaking doctors and the broad options allowed under Spanish law.
Belgium was the second most popular destination for procreation tourism, followed respectively by Switzerland, Britain, the United States, Austria and the Czech Republic.
Italy's law on assisted fertility is one of the most restrictive in Europe and bans the use of donor sperm or eggs, surrogate mothers and embryo freezing or experimentation.
The law passed thanks to a cross-party alliance of Catholic MPs.
Supporters said it respected the rights of the human embryo, preserves the family as the fundamental social unit and ends decades of unregulated practices.
But liberal parliamentarians and most female lawmakers accused Catholic politicians of bowing to the Church with highly restrictive norms that allegedly place women's health at risk and deny sterile couples many of the options that are standard treatment in other European states.
Under the law, singles, same-sex couples and women beyond childbearing age are banned from using assisted fertility techniques, which are limited - and only as a last resort - to sterile heterosexual couples who are married or live together on a "stable" basis.
A maximum of three eggs are allowed to be fertilised at one go and they must all be transferred to the womb simultaneously.
Experts say this lowers the chances of conception compared with the past practice of freezing embryos for future implant attempts and increases the risk of multiple births.
Women are denied the right to refuse implantation once their eggs have been fertilised.
The laws also forbid the screening of embryos for abnormalities or genetic disorders, even for couples with a history of genetic disease.
An attempt was made to overturn the law by public referendum, but the June 2005 vote failed to reach the quorum needed.
Some members of the current center-left government have vowed modify the law and make it less strict.
