Heterologous fertilization. A child at all costs?
In recent years, the number of couples who resort to assisted reproduction to have a child. This has raised many ethical and legal issues, notably through the use of heterologous insemination when that is to be used are eggs or sperm from a donor outside the couple.
The term assisted fertilization refers to a variety of techniques of varying complexity, it is possible to distinguish assisted fertilization techniques of first and second level, between the first ultrasound monitoring of ovulation through which ultrasound is detected the moment in which ovulation occurs and thus choose the moment to have sex fruitful, el 'intrauterine insemination, which consists in inducing ovulation a bit more "abundant than normal," and introduced directly into the seed properly PREPARED uterus. Among the techniques we have the so-called second level i.e. IVF insemination in vitro embryo production outside the woman's body and later implantation in the uterus, as in the case, infertility is due to endometriosis, tubal problems and some types of male infertility, and finally in vitro fertilization with surgical removal of sperm.
There is talk of homologous fertilization when the seed and the egg belong to the parents of the unborn and heterologous fertilization rather the seed or the egg belong to a donor. In Italy, Law 40, which came into force in March 2004, allows fertility treatment only to married or unmarried heterosexual couples age suffer from infertility or sterility not be resolved by other means and prohibit the heterologous fertilization. In addition, each couple can groped fertilization three eggs at a time at most, all embryos obtained must necessarily be implanted in the uterus although suffering from some disease, and cannot therefore be frozen. The law forbids preimplantation diagnosis, and does not provide the possibility for the woman to stop treatment. It’s also prohibited the scientific research on embryos
The Prohibition of the use of donated eggs or seed stands in the way of assisted reproduction to many couples who cannot procreate naturally. Heterologous fertilization is in fact the only way to have children available to people with serious genetic disorders or diseases those who for medical reasons (e.g. due to a tumor or an intervention have become infertile). This has triggered the so-called "procreative tourism" by those couples who can support the economic costs to go abroad where it is allowed that is in all of insemination heterologous other European countries.
Spain is allowed to heterologous fertilization, preimplantation diagnosis, selecting the sex of an unborn child in case of anomalies related to sex chromosomes, freezing and embryo adoption also single women, while gay couples in Belgium also may use the procreation assister. The more permissive law is certainly applicable in Great Britain which also allows fertilization post-mortem with a deceased donor gametes and embryo research.
In 2005 it launched a referendum to change the law 40, and allow inter alia the use of. But it has turned into a stalemate for the lack of a quorum.
The most burning issues, as already mentioned, circle the cosiddeta heterologous fertilization on which arose a multitude of questions: for example, that the right has the donor or the donor on the unborn? Are kept, parents and the child, once grown up, to know the identity of the donor or the donor? The baby then has half the genetic makeup of an unknown that could also be a carrier of a disease. But the biggest question mark is also the oldest and, perhaps, has nothing to do with the new techniques of assisted reproduction: the father or mother is really exclusively the man or woman who gives half of their genetic heritage?