Embryo rights

last updated 8 January 2015

Rome

An Italian law that took effect this week proclaims that fertilized human eggs have “the same rights” as citizens. The law was intended to place limits on fertility research. In Italy, the fertility industry has been all but unregulated, and has produced such controversial oddities as a 62-year-old mother and a rogue doctor who is seeking to clone humans. But critics say the new controls go too far, with bans on sperm donors, surrogate mothers, and the freezing of embryos. Even some supporters say they worry about giving embryos rights, because they don’t want to provide a legal basis for banning abortion.