On 16 October, with 84 yes votes, 58 no votes and no abstentions, the amendment to the law on surrogacy became law. The bill, definitively approved by the Senate, introduced a ban on the practice of surrogacy not only in Italy, where it is illegal, but also abroad, in countries where the practice is legitimate.
IT FILE
Surrogacy, ten questions and ten answers: how it works and what changes with the law
By the web editorial team 17 October 2024
The Minister for the Family, Eugenia Roccella, responding to a question from Tagadà on La7, declared: «A public official, and also the doctor, is required to report cases of suspected violation of the law on surrogacy to the Prosecutor’s Office. And then we’ll see». “I hope that the application of the law will have a strongly dissuasive effect”, added Roccella, recalling that “in Italy there is a procedure that protects minors and ensures the possibility for the biological parent’s partner to be recognized as a parent”.
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On the application of the law, Roccella hopes “that it will have a strongly dissuasive effect”. And «there is no retroactive effect – he explains -, this will be a law that will have effect for those who from now on want to access this practice”.
Gestation for other universal crimes, Roccella: “The doctor must also report suspicious cases to the Prosecutor’s Office”
After the modification of law 40 of 19 February 2004, Gpa (gestation for others) is punished with imprisonment from three months to two years and with a fine from 600 thousand to one million euros. The Meloni government’s move, as expected, has sparked discussion at a political level and beyond.
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«This Bill violates Article 3 of the Constitution: Gpa (Gestation for Others) is a universal crime only if Italians, Giorgia’s flock, do it, if Elon Musk does it the doors of Palazzo Chigi will be opened to him. Either it is a universal crime or it is not», Senator Ivan Scalfarotto, group leader of Italia Viva in the Senate Justice Committee, underlined in the Chamber, during the discussion of the constitutionality preliminary rulings on the Bill on surrogate motherhood as a universal crime.
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In response to Minister Roccella’s statements, the president of the National Federation of Medical Orders spoke (Fnomceo) Filippo Anelli: «The doctor has the duty to treat. Let the doctor be exempted from the obligation to report to his patient this can also be deduced from the paragraph of article 365 of the Criminal Code which exempts the doctor from this obligation when the report would expose the person assisted to criminal proceedings. Therefore the doctor must not, it is true, obstruct justice but, above all, he must not carry out acts that put the treatment relationship at risk, limiting the protection of citizens’ health”.
The opinion expressed by Anelli regarding the doctor’s position with respect to the newly approved law, according to what we learn, will be published in the scientific journal British Medical Journal.
Because gestation for others and a rented uterus are not the same thing
«It seems to me that President Anelli, in commenting on my considerations on the necessary respect for the law, is confusing the plans”Roccella replies. «It is clear that treatment always has priority and that the relationship of trust between doctor and patient is not in question. But in this case, whoever commissioned the surrogate motherhood, violating the law, does not have a health problem, given that the person who gave birth and needs care is in any case the surrogate mother.”
«I also remind President Anelli that – adds Roccella – a law in force for twenty years criminally punishes in Italy not only those who practice womb renting, but also those who “organise and advertise” it. These are complex commercial organizations that involve various professions, including medical ones. But even in other cases, in which the need for healthcare is real, the issue of reporting, for example when faced with evidence of victims of violence, as in the case of sexual violence or organ trafficking, cannot be trivialised. and – he concludes – it must be treated with the right sense of responsibility”.
